Grantee Research
Funded by competitive grants from Public Health Law Research, each independent “Grantee Research” project seeks to build the evidence for and strengthen the use of regulatory, legal and policy solutions to improve public health. PHLR is also interested in identifying and ameliorating laws and legal practices that unintentionally harm health. As public health practitioners, policy-makers and others consider how laws influence the public’s health, they need evidence to inform questions such as: How does law influence health and health behavior? Which laws have the greatest impact? Can current laws be made more effective through better enforcement, or do they require amendment?
Behavioral economics is a strong lens through which to study the child welfare system and child maltreatment, both in how the parents, attorneys, caseworkers, and judges involved in the child welfare system make decisions and in how those decisions affect children’s outcomes and future prospects...
In 2011, Maryland legislators introduced a 50 percent increase in the sales and use tax on alcoholic beverages. The effect of alcohol policy on non-fatal traffic injuries is unknown, as studies have focused on fatal injuries. This study aims to assess the effects of 2011 alcohol policy on the...
Individuals most at risk of being substance users are similarly at increased risk of becoming HIV positive. Further complicating this issue, are the restrictions imposed after release on those who have a previous drug charge. In the past decade, rehabilitation services and policies to help...
Bullying at school is a widespread problem in the United States. There is no federal law that specifically applies to bullying; however, schools are legally responsible for addressing bullying in the context of harassment based on race, national origin, sex, religion, or disability. Most states...
A growing number of states are decriminalizing and, more recently, legalizing marijuana possession; yet few if any studies have examined whether these laws contribute to an increase in marijuana use among drivers or impact traffic safety. California passed a marijuana decriminalization law (...
This project explores the nexus between criminal justice and public health. Criminal justice professionals are increasingly concerned with developing ‘evidence-based’ policy, and making sure that their efforts are targeted and effective. This is the case with the Philadelphia Police Department,...
Mental health and mental health parity are significant public health issues. The proposed project analyzes the impact of state and federal parity laws designed to address the disparity between mental and physical health benefits in commercial insurance on mental health outcomes. Two research...
In May 2012, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in conjunction with the Association of Public >Health Laboratories, released a report titled “An Overview of Legal Considerations in Assessing Multi-jurisdictional Sharing of Public Health Laboratory Testing Services.” The report was...
Criminal law and public health have markedly different—at times mutually exclusive—philosophies and approaches to HIV prevention. Attempts of public health personnel to anticipate and accommodate the demands of the criminal law (...
Despite decades of interventions, research suggests intimate partner violence (IPV) prevalence rates are increasing and results in increased healthcare costs for up to three years even after the violence has ceased. This study...
Public health experts, legal scholars and policy makers are increasingly recognizing that laws can keep people safe and healthy; for example, by encouraging the use of seat belts and by keeping the environment safe from toxins. This growing recognition has led to the emergence of “public health...
Mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders constitute a global public health problem of enormous proportions. Developing and implementing cost-effective interventions to improve the lives of people with mental illnesses and comorbid substance abuse disorders remains a challenge for multiple...
This project considers children who are overweight, the most common health problem facing American childeren. States, and to a lesser extent, local governments, have passed a variety of laws aimed at reducing youths’ exposure to high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and encouraging...
This project will look at the implementation of Virginia’s newly-enacted Health Care Decisions Act (HCDA) and identify the key barriers and enabling factors that will determine the law’s ultimate impact on health outcomes, safety, and quality of life for persons with severe mental illness. The...
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides a basic set of protections for workers who are injured or ill, for new parents, and for workers who need to care for a family member. Family and medical leave access represents an essential element of worker, family, and population health...
Hierarchy of Evidence
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Hierarchy of Evidence
The Public Health Law Research program is dedicated to building the evidence base for public health law. In pursuing this aim, we fund and conduct a diverse array of research activities ranging from formative efforts that identify important research questions to the generation of legal data sets to experiments employing various methodological designs.
As a service to policy-makers and other consumers of NPO research, we have organized our resources according to this hierarchy of evidence, which depicts levels of the scientific authority.
In general, resources higher up the pyramid are less susceptible to bias and therefore provide more robust evidence about the effects of public health laws. Experimental designs, for example, utilize randomization and double-blinding to reduce selection and measurement biases making them more powerful tools for understanding causal relationships than quasi-experimental and observational designs. At the top of our pyramid are studies that use systematic processes such as meta-analysis to assess a question in light of a body of primary studies that have examined it. At the bottom of our pyramid are foundational resources like legal datasets and papers setting out research agendas. The bulk of our resources are primary studies in the middle two levels.
While this hierarchy reflects judgments about the authority of various designs, it does not suggest that research employing a design from a higher level is always more scientifically authoritative than research conducted in a design from a lower level.
© RWJF 2013
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Public Health Law Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It is housed at the Temple University Beasley School of Law.