Donald Trump’s presidency may be making some people sick, a growing number of studies suggest. Researchers have begun to identify correlations between Trump’s election and worsening cardiovascular health, sleep problems, anxiety and stress, especially among Latinos in the United States.
A study published Friday using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the risk of premature birth was higher than expected among Latina women following Trump’s election. The new study is particularly powerful, experts say, because unlike ailments such as depression or stress that can be hard to quantify, births come with hard data.
“You have a date when the baby should have been born and when it actually is. You have weight, length of stay at hospital. It’s extremely objective data,” said Kjersti Aagaard, an OB/GYN researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital who was not associated with the study.