221718 Public Health Law Research: A Framework for Examining the Impact of Public Health Laws on Health Outcomes

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM

Scott Burris, JD, LLD , Beasley School of Law, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Alexander C. Wagenaar, PhD , College of Medicine, Dept of Health Outcomes and Policy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Jeffrey Swanson, PhD , Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC
Jennifer Wood, PhD , Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Jennifer K. Ibrahim, PhD MPH MA , Department of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD, MPhil , Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
  
Public health law has received considerable attention in recent years with much less attention to the empirical study of public health law. The National Program Office for Public Health Law Research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation starting in 2009 to advance the field of public health law research. We define public health law research as the scientific study of the relation of law and legal practices to population health. We draw from a range of disciplines such as law, public health, epidemiology, economics, sociology, and psychology to frame our definition and methodological approaches. We develop a logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches for studying the effects of law on public health. We delineate the differences between public health law scholarship and research as well as discuss the special considerations, including research on the content and prevalence of public health laws, processes of adopting and implementing laws, and the mechanisms through which law affects health outcomes. To advance the field of public health law research, it is important that certain challenges be addressed early on, including the need to assure methodological rigor from finding and coding laws through special considerations in analysis. Public health law research is a young field, but holds great promise for supporting evidence-based policy making that will improve population health.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
• Describe the field of public health law research. • Identify areas for empirical research in public health law. • Discuss challenges that exist in conducting public health law research and ways in which to address these challenges.

Keywords: Law, Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I led the conceptualization of the presentation and the drafting of articles and other products that will come out of it.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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