The Role of US Mayors and Health Commissioners in Combatting Health Disparities

摘要

In this issue of AJPH, Purtle et al. (p. 634) found that 42% of mayors and 61.1% of health commissioners "strongly agreed" that health disparities existed in their cities. Furthermore, the authors noted that "liberal" respondents were more likely than "conservative" respondents to strongly agree that health disparities existed, were avoidable, and were unfair, for reasons independent of the belief that city policies could affect disparities. The authors argue that most mayors and some health commissioners are unaware of the extent to which city policies can significantly affect health disparities. They also conclude that political ideology is strongly associated with respondents' opinions about health disparities.