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We know very little about the 138 respondents to the poll ‘Who was the best UK health secretary?’.[1] However, we know quite a lot about the ten men and two women appointed to that role since 1988.
There have been six Conservative and six Labour secretaries of state. Initially we thought BMJ voters might favour one political party over the other, but this was not supported statistically. Does previous experience of office matter? Who’s Who [2] contains occupational histories of all twelve politicians, including appointments prior to secretary of state. Was previous experience of the Department of Health as a junior minister (4/12) any advantage? Not so. While preparing a one-way analysis of variance across biographical parameters, one measure immediately stood out: the age at which health secretaries were first appointed (range 39-58 years). The most mature quartile gained a mean vote of 29 (n=3, aged >56 ), whereas the others gained a mean 5.67 votes (n=9). While this difference appeared significant with ANOVA (F = 13.403, p = 0.004) voting was not normally distributed with respect to age at appointment. Using the nonparametric U test to compare the two groups (median votes 19 versus 5) still demonstrated a significant difference (p = 0.009).
Ageism is common in employment. But in looking at the ‘best’ policymakers it appears BMJ readers favour more mature leaders?
[1] Timmins N. Ten ways to be secretary of state for health. BMJ 2015;350:h2954
[2]A&C Black. Who’s Who 2015. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
A Good Vintage ?
We know very little about the 138 respondents to the poll ‘Who was the best UK health secretary?’.[1] However, we know quite a lot about the ten men and two women appointed to that role since 1988.
There have been six Conservative and six Labour secretaries of state. Initially we thought BMJ voters might favour one political party over the other, but this was not supported statistically. Does previous experience of office matter? Who’s Who [2] contains occupational histories of all twelve politicians, including appointments prior to secretary of state. Was previous experience of the Department of Health as a junior minister (4/12) any advantage? Not so. While preparing a one-way analysis of variance across biographical parameters, one measure immediately stood out: the age at which health secretaries were first appointed (range 39-58 years). The most mature quartile gained a mean vote of 29 (n=3, aged >56 ), whereas the others gained a mean 5.67 votes (n=9). While this difference appeared significant with ANOVA (F = 13.403, p = 0.004) voting was not normally distributed with respect to age at appointment. Using the nonparametric U test to compare the two groups (median votes 19 versus 5) still demonstrated a significant difference (p = 0.009).
Ageism is common in employment. But in looking at the ‘best’ policymakers it appears BMJ readers favour more mature leaders?
[1] Timmins N. Ten ways to be secretary of state for health. BMJ 2015;350:h2954
[2]A&C Black. Who’s Who 2015. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Competing interests: Both WC and TM are aged > 56