Relationship of law and policy to the County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health

Law and policy often play an important role in protecting and improving the health of a community. In February 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute released the County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health—the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states. The Rankings measure overall health for each county by looking at health outcomes and factors that affect people's health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment. Communities reviewing their rankings and seeking to improve the health of their population should also focus on the laws and policies that affect them.

This session will focus on how legal and policy levers could affect communities' health and how existing legal infrastructures may either serve to stimulate or impede public health. Examples of specific interventions, both those that affect health behaviors and the physical environment, that communities hoping to use these rankings to catalyze change could employ will be provided. Where differences in legal and policy environments seem to lead to differences in population health, they will be highlighted. Issues surrounding ethical and/or social justice issues that arise as a result of the release of these rankings will also be discussed. Resources available to communities and their public health and community leaders for making policy and or environmental changes will also be explained.