Online Program

331292
Ways to Evaluate and Identify the Evidence Base for Health in All Policies


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

Jennifer Ibrahim, PhD, MPH, College of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Law can be a powerful tool to drive population health improvements, but evaluation and evidence of effect is needed. While we can encourage a “health in all policies” approach to advancing health, we need to be sure that there is an evidence base associated with those policies. With the growth of the field of public health law, there are several new tools available to conduct evaluations in the context of academics as well as in practice. With new and emerging resources ranging from policy surveillance systems to compendiums of available empirical evidence, we need to conduct rigorous evaluations of laws and policies the same way that we would any other form of health intervention. It is equally important to build from existing data systems on behavior change, health outcomes and workforce performance, such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the County Health Rankings and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials state profiles. We will demonstrate examples of how researchers and practitioners can each use these various data to critically evaluate policies and laws being passed, including comparisons across jurisdictions looking for opportunities to pass new laws or amend existing laws. We will also address improved approaches to systematic evaluations of the law that consider behavior change, short and long-term health outcomes and the impact on performance by public health practitioners.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Define the steps for developing a systematic evaluation of policies that impact health behaviors or health outcomes, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Describe the existing and emerging resources for conducting evaluations of policies and laws to advance the evidence-base on health in all policies. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing collections of evidence on policies that impact health.

Keyword(s): Evaluation, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Associate Director of the Public Health Law Research National Program Office and I have been conducting research and teaching in the area of public health law and policy for the last 12 years. I have worked on developing some of the tools that will be discussed in the presentation and I have been part of evaluation teams that have looked at several of the other tools.
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.