Americans are not only more aware of the work of their local public health departments than in recent years — they think more highly of their officials too, a recent poll finds.
Conducted in May, the national poll commissioned by the de Beaumont Foundation found that 60% of Americans are familiar with their health department, compared to 53% in 2022. More than half of respondents said they were familiar with a local public health official, and of those, 70% said they had a favorable opinion of that official — both of which also increased.
That support bridged the political aisle, with 75% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans holding a positive view of their local official.
“The shared pandemic experience seems to have driven deeper familiarity with and support of public health departments and officials, along with a stronger understanding of the important role of public health in keeping families well,” said Brian Castrucci, DrPH, president and CEO of de Beaumont, in a blog post. “Importantly, the level of familiarity and support is not waning with time, but continues to rise.”
The Morning Consult poll also found that as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, fewer people think preventing future pandemics should be the highest priority for health departments. While more than a third of U.S. adults chose that topic as most important in May 2021, only 17% did this year. In comparison, 18% said conducting research on diseases should be the prime concern, followed by fighting the opioid epidemic, at 16%, and addressing racial health disparities, at 15%.
Though the U.S. continues to experience a maternal health crisis, with deaths among pregnant women far outpacing other high-income nations, the rate of people who named reducing risks from childbirth the highest priority for health departments fell to 5%. Two out of three respondents said that addressing racial disparities should be a priority for new public health funding. More than one-third of poll respondents also said racial discrimination influences their health and that of their friends and family.
For more information, visit https://debeaumont.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association