Politics & Policy

69% of U.S. adults track a health indicator like weight, diet, exercise routine, or symptom. Of those, half track in their heads, one-third keep notes on paper, and one in five use technology to keep tabs on their health status.

Stanford Medicine X is a catalyst for new ideas about the future of medicine and emerging technologies. Stanford Medical Student Joyce Ho interviews Susannah Fox about her upcoming report, “Tracking for Health.”

In December 2011, the Pew Research Center examined the roles and attitudes of female military veterans and found that, while many combat roles were withheld from female veterans, women in the military did report experiencing combat and had many of the same issues as men during their transition back into civilian life.

Two years after Egyptians first poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square chanting “Down with Mubarak” the legacy of the Arab Spring remains uncertain. Polling since the uprising shows that Egyptians want democratic rights and institutions, a major role for Islam in political life, and an improved economy – a challenging set of demands for the new cadre of Egyptian leaders.

Overview When Barack Obama took office four years ago, reducing the budget deficit was a middle-tier item on the public’s agenda. Only about half of Americans (53%) viewed it as a top policy priority in January 2009, placing it ninth on a list of 20 policy goals. But as Obama begins his second term, only […]

The public is split on whether abortion is a critical or important issue or whether it is not that important an issue. But this masks stark differences in opinion between regular churchgoers and those who attend religious services less often.

President Obama on Monday laid out his second term priorities, naming a range of issues: the social safety net, entitlement programs, income inequality, climate change, gay rights and immigration reform. Here is what our surveys have found about public opinion on these topics.

Overview With the public paying close attention to the national debate over gun control, Barack Obama’s gun proposals receive a mixed rating from the public. A 39% plurality say Obama’s proposals are about right while another 13% say they do not go far enough. About three-in-ten (31%) say the president’s proposals go too far; 17% […]

Just 44% of those under 30 know that the Roe v. Wade ruling dealt with abortion, compared with 62% of all adults.