Abstract

Background Individuals who identify as politically conservative have been previously shown to report better self-rated health compared with liberals. We tested whether this association still holds for right-wing populists, which are gaining strength as a political force in Europe in recent decades.

Methods We analysed data from 24 617 respondents nested within 18 European countries included in the 2016 European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses were conducted to assess the association between political ideology and self-rated health, adjusting for other individual covariates (happiness and social capital).

Results Individuals who voted for right-wing populist parties were 43% more likely to report fair/poor health compared with traditional conservatives (OR=1.43, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.67). The association was attenuated (OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.42) after controlling for additional individual-level variables, including happiness and access to social capital. Higher levels of social capital (informal networks, OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.56; trust, OR=0.82, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.92) and happiness (OR=0.18, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.22) were protectively correlated with fair/poor self-rated health.