A Scan of CDC-Authored Articles on Legal Epidemiology, 2011-2015

Abstract

Results of the scan can be used to identify opportunities for the agency to better support research, professional development, networking, publication, and tracking of publication in this emerging field.

Connecting policy to licensed assisted living communities, introducing health services regulatory analysis

“…Of these, 11 states required dementia training for all licensed settings; six states required this training in some, but not all license types; and 11 states specified the training was only necessary for dementia-designated care settings. As shown in Figure 1, by 2018, 41 states (80%) had either requirements for all settings (14), some licensed settings (10), or only dementia-designated settings (17). In comparison, a 2015 legal review of dementia-specific initial training for direct care workers identified 21 states (41%) with these requirements, in either all settings (6) or only for dementia "special care" units (15).…”

“…11 For example, hospitals, or units within hospitals, might serve patients with acute, traumatic, long-term, or mental health needs, or patients who are indigent. 12,13 Studies have used legal epidemiology 14 and health policy methodologies 15,16 to document the influence of policies using the state as the unit of analysis.…”

“…Policy surveillance, an approach within legal epidemiology, uses legal research methods to collect and map statutes to examine how policies differ across jurisdictions 21,24 . Public health researchers have used policy surveillance output in comparative analyses, both those that track policy changes across jurisdictions and studies linking the policies to the health outcomes of their corresponding populations 14,25 . For example, a recent study of state telehealth laws and opioid prescribing practices found that 17 states had laws to address prescribing limitations, opioid treatment, patient plan review, and professional collaboration, 15 another study compared states’ community health worker laws, identifying differences in scope of practice and training requirements 16 .…”

Policy Levers to Promote Access to and Utilization of Children’s Mental Health Services: A Systematic Review

“…Broader economic security policies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit have been shown to be independently associated with measures of child development (Dahl and Lochner 2012; Hamad and Rehkopf 2016). Despite the relationship between such policies and developmental outcomes, and support for evidence-informed policy within children’s mental health systems (Miles et al 2010), empirical study of how laws influence access to mental health services has been infrequent (Martini et al 2016).…”

Using Mixed Methods and Multidisciplinary Research to Strengthen Policy Assessments Focusing on Populations at High Risk for Sexually Transmitted Diseases

“…12 A scan of CDC-authored articles on legal epidemiology, the scientific study of law as a factor in the cause, distribution, and prevention of disease (also known as public health law research, which includes policy surveillance research), identified few legally trained authors on teams conducting legal epidemiology research "despite the interdisciplinary quality of CDC's staff members and work." 13 The review did not identify any policy studies in STD prevention that used mixed methods.…”