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Advancing Legal Epidemiology Is Focus Of Journal Supplement
The March 2020 supplement of the Journal of Public
Health Management and Practice is devoted to research reports and
commentaries on the field of legal epidemiology. It is “the scientific
study and deployment of the law as a factor in the cause,
distribution, and prevention of disease and injury in a population.”
In the editorial introducing the special supplement,
Betsy Thompson and colleagues note that law is a key determinant
of public health and that researchers in the sub-discipline have been
able to “turn the text of the law into empirical data to measure the
effects of law on public health outcomes.” The editorialists state
that legal epidemiology “provides a powerful tool to gain greater
insights and pursue more effective public health strategies that will
benefit us all.”
In a commentary in the same supplemental issue,
Scott Burris and colleagues believe that the “research necessary
to identify and spread best legal practices is too often never carried
out.” They seek to achieve the full integration of law into public
health.
In a post on the Journal’s companion site JPHMP Direct,
Colleen Barbero and colleagues post “Seven Things You Should
Know About Legal Epidemiology” for advancing chronic and
non-communicable disease management. In brief, they include:
1. It’s not just for lawyers, and not just for
epidemiologists.
Legal epidemiology is a transdisciplinary field. It focuses not on
what law says but rather on what law does.
2. The field is relatively new, but growing quickly.
There have been several important institutional accomplishments which
have helped stimulate the field, including the creation of the Center
for Public Health Law Research at Temple University, and recognition
by the National Library of Medicine to make indexing and searching
legal epidemiology reports easier.
3. The methods transcend specific public health topics
or domains.
Legal epidemiology methods may be applied to any area of public
health.
4. It’s changing public health and legal education.
Courses in legal epidemiology are being developed and incorporated
into educational programs in law schools and schools of public health.
5. It’s catching on in policy making and practice.
A Five Essential Public Health Law Services model has been developed
and there is additional interest in and use of “policy surveillance”,
a legal epidemiology tool.
6. Policy surveillance data is a game changer.
This tool provides access to the content and substance of law and
legal trends over time. Policy surveillance datasets are at the heart
of most legal epidemiology studies.
7. Most legal epidemiology resources are in the public
domain and are free.
The broad accessibility of resources—data, research results, method
descriptions, and training courses—presents a great opportunity.
To access the supplement issue, visit:
http://bit.ly/2I1rYrP
To access JPHMP Direct for the 7 key takeaways, visit:
http://bit.ly/38UQk2b
To access the 5 Essential Public Health Law Services,
visit:
http://bit.ly/2Vf0NBl
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