Using data from the UberResearch NIH grant repository, researchers from the Center for Public Health Law Research and UberResearch in Cambridge, Mass., collected and coded all National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants with a focus on health policy between FY’85 and FY’14 and then analyzed the grants by funding agency and topic areas. The study finds that NIH has supported public health law research, but not to the extent necessary to timely evaluate laws affecting the public’s health.
From 2013 to 2014, researchers conducted 47 semi-structured interviews with school and district administrators in Iowa about its 2007 anti-bullying law. Administrators identified many policy implementation challenges related to funding and staff, prevention programs, applying the law’s bullying definition in investigations, and understanding the school’s jurisdiction for policy enforcement. They also raised contextual barriers to implementation, like media portrayals of bullying and parental attitudes.
The authors describe Five Essential Public Health Law Services and suggest investment in the people, methods and tools needed to move major policy initiatives from conception to widespread implementation. The model reflects a transdisciplinary approach integrating public health legal practice with law-related surveillance, evaluation and enforcement functions usually performed by public health practitioners. As an elaboration of law-related activities within the Ten Essential Public Health Services, the framework can be used to define, evaluate and strengthen public health law functions.
Each week, the team from the Policies for Action Research Hub posts a summary of the latest news in housing equity and law. Visit the Harvard Petrie-Flom Center's Bill of Health Law to see all the weekly reviews.
Researchers from the University of Maryland Baltimore found that the alcohol sales tax increase resulted in a 6 percent annual reduction in the rate of alcohol-positive drivers involved in an injury crash with an even more pronounced effect among younger drivers.
The alcohol sales tax impacted drivers 15 to 20 years old and 21 to 34 years old more than the older age groups. Among young drivers, there was a 12 percent annual reduction following the alcohol sales tax increase.
Schools are often held responsible for preventing or addressing cyberbullying, yet little is known about school administrator perceptions of cyberbullying and the challenges they face in addressing this public health issue. This study examined school administrators’ perceptions of the facilitators of cyberbullying and barriers to primary and secondary prevention strategies.
George Washington University, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences
This study examined economic and health outcome data from all 50 states between 1999-2010. The researchers find better health outcomes in states that enacted higher tax credits for the poor or higher minimum wage laws and in states without a right-to-work law that limits union power. These policies focus on increasing the incomes of low-income and working-class families, instead of on shaping the resources available to wealthier individuals.
This study examines what case characteristics in North Carolina increased the likelihood of a child maltreatment case being prosecuted, and upon prosecution, of being convicted.
