Legal Epidemiology: The Science of Law

Abstract

The importance of legal epidemiology in public health law research has undoubtedly grown over the last five years. Scholars and practitioners together have developed guidance on best practices for the field, including: placing emphasis on transdisciplinary collaborations; creating valid, reliable, and repeatable research; and publishing timely products for use in decision-making and change. Despite the energy and expertise researchers have brought to this important work, they name significant challenges in marshalling the diverse skill sets, quality controls, and funding to implement legal epidemiology activities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has worked to develop cross-cutting research and translation on issues of national priority in legal epidemiology, and has explored ways to overcome some of these challenges. As such, this article describes a case study of the use of law to characterize states' prior authorization policies regarding medication used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a central component of a broader effort to improve behavior therapy options for young children with ADHD. This article highlights the types of legal epidemiology work we have undertaken, the application of this work to an emerging public health problem, and the lessons learned in creating impactful research for the field.

Understanding and comparing HIV-related law and policy environments: cross-national data and accountability for the global AIDS response

“…A small but growing literature in legal epidemiology shows an empirical link between laws and policies and health outcomes. 12 For example, eliminating parental consent policies has been linked to increased rates of HIV testing. 13 Countries where sex work is not criminalised have significantly lower HIV prevalence among sex workers.…”

Health Impact Assessment and City Council Policy: Identifying Opportunities to Address Local Social Determinants of Health & Place-Health Relationships, 10 Years Later

“…urban renewal, community development) are routinely reviewed in light of potential health impacts-even in the absence of HIA resources. Reviews like the one discussed here could be used to contextualize the outcomes data made available by an increasing number of tools/platforms (CDC, 2020; NAPHSIS, 2020; PolicyMap, 2020; RWJF, 2020), and perhaps allow for more robust and locally actionable assessments of place-health relationships, drawing from-and enhancing the geographic resolution of-legal epidemiology approaches in public health (Burris et al, 2016;Ramanathan et al, 2017).…”

Negative illness feedbacks: High‐frisk policing reduces civilian reliance on ED services

“…Legal epidemiology is a framework that could enhance our theoretical understanding of how collusion between law enforcement and health services influences patients’ decisions to rely on ED care. Legal epidemiology posits that law and legal practices shape health outcomes 32‐34 . Simultaneously, research has emerged focusing on how racialized policing in racialized contexts exacerbates health problems 1,4,22,23,35‐37 .…”