What We Fund

Youth Sports TBI Laws: Measuring Public Health Impact on Initial and Recurrent Concussions

This study will build upon the research team’s existing work with state laws addressing traumatic brain injury (TBI) and sport-related concussions. It will be the first study to evaluate TBI law data using concussion data from a national surveillance system.

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Variations in State Income Support Programs and their Relationship to Preterm Birth in the US

US welfare policy is governed by a labyrinthine set of laws that oversee program eligibility, enrollment procedures and the cash value of benefits received, some established at the federal level, and some delegated to the states. The delegation of the administration of US welfare programs to the states has created wide variations in overall program distributions, which ultimately has a substantial impact on state poverty levels, income inequality and the direct program benefits that people receive.

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Law Mapping: Health Issues in Oil and Gas Development

Advances in extractive technologies (hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling) have enabled a rapid expansion in oil and natural gas production through development of tight shale formations in rural, suburban and urban areas. While there is still little research on the health impacts of oil and gas development (e.g., from toxic air pollutants, ground-level ozone, chemical pollution of potable aquifers, etc.), public concern has prompted regulatory review at all levels of government.

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Impact of State Opioid Regulation on Pain Management in Medicare Patients

Many states have responded to the abuse of prescription opioids by developing a set of policies limiting access (e.g., prescription drug monitoring programs). While abuse is a continual concern, opioids play an important role in legitimate pain management: About one-third of the U.S. population struggles with chronic pain.

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Capitalizing on Recent Changes to School Immunization Requirements to Improve the Publics’ Health

All states offer medical exemptions to school immunization requirements, and 48 states offer non-medical exemptions. Prior research has shown that easily granting non-medical exemptions has been associated with higher exemption rates, increasing exemption rates, and incidence of pertussis. Several states with historically high rates of exemptions have recently added restrictions to their exemption policies in an effort to reduce the frequency of exemptions and more effectively control disease.

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Health Communication and Information Technology

Impact of Public Health Laws on Electronic Disease Surveillance

This project aims to assess the impacts of state and federal laws on the practice of electronic syndromic surveillance (SyS) to monitor disease trends in near “real time.” The project will examine SyS systems operated by state and local health departments and their willingness to share SyS data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the national BioSense system—a CDC-funded Internet “cloud-based” service hosted by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

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Public Health and the Contested Legal Terrain of Electronic Cigarettes

Jurisdictions across the country, acting in the context of a federal regulatory void and wide gaps in knowledge about the safety of e-cigarettes, are trying to decide whether and how to regulate the devices. This project is an in-depth, real-time study of policymaking surrounding this issue. The project aims to advance understanding of the policymaking process, particularly with respect to how scientific research evidence is or is not used by decision makers, and to identify the key determinants of policy action on this issue, providing a map of the current policy landscape.

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State Pharmacy Laws Affecting Generic Prescription Drug Substitution: Their Effect on Public Health

Research has shown that patients are more likely to adhere to prescription regimens when they are prescribed more affordable generic products. However, state-level drug product selection laws and regulations control whether pharmacists can substitute brand-name drugs with generic versions of the same products. Drug product selection laws vary across states in whether they are automatic or permissive, whether they require patient consent, and whether there are exceptions (carve-outs) for certain drug classes.

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Creating a database of state laws on vaccination requirements and exemptions to support the field of PHLR

The team will create a database of vaccine laws, which will facilitate analysis of the relationship between variations in state laws and differences in vaccine coverage and communicable diseases.

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Studying Whether Two North Carolina Legal Interventions Reduce Child Maltreatment

This study will examine mandatory reporting by departments of social services to the district attorney when there is evidence of child abuse addressing: How do rates of prosecution, plea, conviction, and penalties vary within the state? What explains variations? How does the variation affect child maltreatment? The study also examines whether family drug treatment courts prevent future maltreatment and foster placements.

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Assessing the Public Health Impact of Laws and Ordinances Regulating Paid Sick Leave on Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases

This study will assess the public health impact of paid sick leave laws and ordinances on preventing and controlling infectious diseases, specifically foodborne and respiratory illness.

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Mapping Variations in Local Marijuana Laws in Washington State to Study the Impact on Health Outcomes and Disparities

Washington State is among the first to legalize recreational marijuana. Local ordinances already exist to regulate medical marijuana, but a strong state medical regulatory framework does not exist. It is unclear how variations in local laws will impact marijuana access, use, initiation, and related outcomes such as injury and crime, particularly among youth.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Studying the Effectiveness of Legal Measures to Control Tuberculosis in Homeless Shelters

The prevention and control of tuberculosis (TB) in the homeless population is an important public health goal, hampered by the reluctance of some homeless people to undergo medical screening, as well as the lack of evidence to support the best interventions for encouraging and increasing screening among those seeking shelter. This project will identify which of three legal mechanisms will result in the greatest reduction of undetected active TB cases among homeless people using emergency shelters.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Mapping State and Federal Occupational Safety and Health Laws and Regulations to Increase Knowledge and Improving Worker-Protective Standards

The study will collect data on state and federal regulations concerned with protecting workers from specific chemical, physical, biological, mechanical, or psychosocial hazards and will be compiled from publicly available federal and state regulatory sources.

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Analyzing the Impact on Cigar Smoking by Youths of an Innovative Packaging Regulation in Boston

This study will analyze the impact of the regulation on youth cigar use, and will answer: Has the regulation resulted in a reduction in cigar use prevalence among 9-12 graders in Boston after its enactment in 2012? Was the reduction in cigar use prevalence among 9-12 graders in Boston greater than those of municipalities that have not enacted the regulation? To what extent has the sales price of cigars increased in retail stores since the enactment in 2012?

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Analyzing the Effectiveness of Laws on Distracted and Inattentive Driving to Reduce Traffic Injuries

Driver inattention is a significant contributor to traffic-related injury. A 2006 naturalistic driving study estimated that 78 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near crashes involved some form of driver inattention.

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Studying the "Health in All Policies" Impact on Population Health of Changes in a Range of State Economic Laws over the Last 20 Years

Despite growing attention to the health effects of "non-health" policy and calls for policy-makers to adopt a Health in All Policy (HiAP) approach, little attention has been paid to a key set of economic policies — the various taxes, redistributive spending, and market regulating laws — that shape the distribution of economic resources among Americans.

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Analyzing the Impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs in Reducing the Epidemic of Drug Abuse

This project will investigate the role of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in reducing epidemic rates of prescription drug abuse.

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How Does Land-Use Regulation Affect the Built Environment and Crime?

This project will study six Los Angeles neighborhoods to assess the extent to which land-use regulation affects the crime in communities. The study will explore the relationship between crime, the built environment and land-use regulation.

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State Foodborne Illness Surveillance and Response Laws: Compilation and Analysis

This study proposes to conduct a systematic review and gap analysis of state laws relating to foodborne illness surveillance and outbreak response.

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Food Safety

Evaluation of Law Mandating Reporting of Concussions by High School Athletes

Stakeholders in sports medicine have focused on decreasing the risk of repeated concussions among athletes. This study will use a random sample of high schools in Washington to determine the effect of the type of implementation of concussion-related laws on the risk of playing with concussive symptoms, the methods by which these return-to-play laws are implemented, and the effect of those methods on concussion outcomes is unknown.

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Housing Insecurity, Foreclosures, and Public Health

Americans saw more than 2.8 million foreclosures recent years, and the impacts on public health are largely unknown. The foreclosure process may impact health if it causes stress-related illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, if it forces reallocation of household funds that are otherwise used for health care, if it occasions dislocation that impacts treatment relationships, or if it degrades health-related behaviors such as diet and exercise.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Enhancing Public Health Laws Datasets: U.S. Tobacco Control Laws Database

The American Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR) Foundation will collect and code local tobacco control laws nationwide related to youth access to tobacco products, tobacco advertising, and conditional use permits.

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Creation of a Legal Database on State Involuntary In-patient & Out-patient Civil Commitment Laws

This study will collect and code statutes, regulations and case law governing involuntary civil commitment to both inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment across the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

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Analyzing the Impact of Immigration Enforcement by Local Officials on Access to Care among Latinos

The rapid growth of the immigrant Latino population in North Carolina and nationwide has led to immigration policies that may have a potentially profound impact on utilization of public health services. This study will evaluate whether a relationship exists between local immigration law enforcement and the utilization of public health services, especially prenatal care, by Latinos.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

What is the Impact of Local Health Department Structure and Policy on Public Health?

This study examines the policies and structures of local and state health departments, and how they impact public health. The study will focus on the structural arrangements of the local boards of health (such as whether the boards of health are elected or appointed) and the level of state health department centralization, and how they affect performance, fiscal health, innovation, collaboration, and strategic planning.

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What is Effective "Legal Triage" in a Public Health Emergency?

This project explores how legal and public health decision makers use law in critical public health emergencies to protect populations from significant morbidity and mortality.

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Preparedness

Electronic Device Use and Distracted Driving Fatalities: Do State Regulations Matter?

This study aims to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of state laws restricting use of electronic devices while driving in reducing fatalities on public roads and examine the interrelationship between distracted driving, alcohol consumption and state law.

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Mental Health and Proactive Policing: Individual and Community Effects

Proactive policing has become a primary strategy for controlling violence and disorder in urban America. The key tactic is the widespread use of "Terry" stops, where police temporarily detain, frisk and perhaps search persons or their property when an officer has "reasonable suspicion" to suspect that "crime is afoot." This project will identify the effects of proactive policing on the mental and physical health of persons stopped.

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How Does Antibiotic Regulation Affect Public Health?

This project includes a mapping study analyzing the state of the law and the application of the law surrounding antimicrobial resistance; and a mechanism study to assess the empirical effect of current regulation on antibiotic resistance, including calculation of the effective patent life of antibiotics and empirically testing the patent holder waste hypothesis.

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Do Brief Incarcerations Before Jail Diversion Enhance Its Legal Levarage and Improve Outcomes Among People with Serious Mental Illness in Connecticut?

Two million people with serious mental illness enter U.S. jails each year. Jail diversion is a legal practice in which people with serious mental illness are diverted from the criminal justice system and in to treatment.

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Barriers to Reason: Laws Impacting HIV Prevention Efforts among Injecting Drug Users in the United States

The project aims to identify the impact of laws and regulations in the United States that allow and/or restrict harm reduction interventions, including syringe exchange programs (SEPs) and naloxone delivery on public health outcomes among injecting drug users (IDUs).

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How Does the Legal Authority for Infectious Disease Surveillance Affect States' Ability to Respond to Emerging Threats

This study assess whether state reporting laws for novel H1N1 influenza and emerging infections impact the ability of public health to collect data elements on individual cases; whether state reporting laws for novel H1N1 influenza and emerging infections impact the ability of public health to develop recommendations for disease prevention, control, and treatment, and the effect of “home rule” in a state’s infectious disease reporting structure on the state’s ability to develop such recommendations.

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Can State Law Encourage Regional Collaboration?

This project will examine regional approaches to local public health service delivery in Colorado and examine challenges and barriers to the success of current approaches in the context of law.

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Do Hospital Community Benefit Requirements Help Public Health Activities

Using data from hospital responses to the new preliminary IRS reporting requirements, this study aims to document which hospital community benefit activities are undertaken and which of these are considered public health activities. The study will also identify those activities that are collaborative efforts between hospitals and public health entities.

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How Can OSHA Modernize to Prevent, Detect and Control Risks to Workers?

This study will develop and test alternative strategies for deploying regulatory inspection resources based on risk levels and on financial and other characteristics of individual companies.

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Do Statutory Rape Laws Affect the Incidence of Teenage Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases?

This project will explore whether statutory rape laws, and the way in which they are enforced, contribute to a reduction in both teenage pregnancy rates and rates of various sexually transmitted diseases.

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Has the HPV Vaccination Mandate in DC Improved Public Health?

This study examines the HPV vaccination policy in Washington, D.C., to identify the successes and challenges of the HPV mandate across D.C. communities and the mandate’s impact on parental acceptability and vaccination rates, particularly among minorities and under-served populations.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Did Texas Law Banning Cell Phones in School Zones Save Money?

Do unfunded mandates regarding banning use of hand held cell phones in Texas school zones result in greater savings or cost for municipalities? This project will examine a Texas law prohibiting the use of hand held cell phones in active school zones. It explores the implications of this law in several municipalities utilizing data from law enforcement and municipal budgets. The study aims to identify the relative costs of banning hand-held cell phone use for municipalities and determine any association between enforcement costs and lives saved.

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Does "Risk Management" Result in Safer Alternatives to the Use of Lead?

This project will develop and implement a streamlined alternatives assessment tool appropriate for use in a regulatory context. The alternatives assessment compares alternatives to lead and to one another across a variety of attributes.

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What Effect Do Non-Medical Exemptions to School Immunization Laws Have on Public Health?

This project will explore the relationship between non-medical exemption laws and variability in those state laws and disease rates.

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What Sodium-Reduction Public Health Laws and Policies Work?

This study reviews what public health policy options are available to help reduce salt in the foods we eat as a means of reducing high blood pressure, its costs and health consequences; and studies which options may achieve the greatest consensus among policymakers.

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Nutrition and Weight Status

Does Mandatory Public Infection Reporting Affect Infection Rates?

This study will explore whether reporting induces hospitals to reduce actual health care-associated infection (HAI) rates, reported rates, or both; whether infection preventionists and consumers use the reports; compare the effectiveness of different reporting schemes; and assess how public health agency choices in implementing these programs affect their success.

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Intervention Strategies for Effective Distracted Driving Laws

This study will identify effective legal strategies for improving implementation and enforcement of distracted driving legislation to reduce fatal and non-fatal automobile crashes.

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Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Decal Provision of New Jersey's Graduated Driver Licensing Law

This study will evaluate a New Jersey Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law, which requires probationary teen drivers to display a decal on the vehicle's license plate, making them easily identifiable to police, thereby making it easier for police to enforce the law's restrictions.

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Has the Philadelphia Lead Court Reduced Exposure to Environmental Lead?

This project evaluates the effectiveness of the establishment of the Lead Court in November 2002 in the City of Philadelphia to determine if this type of innovative legal strategy was effective in enforcing the existing city health code, which would lead to improvement of children's health (by reducing exposure to lead in individual housing units) and improvement of the environment (by decreasing the number of properties with lead hazards).

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How Do Laws Restricting Reproductive Health Services Affect Sexually Transmitted Disease Among Minors?

This project evaluates the impact of laws requiring parental involvement in minors' decisions to obtain an abortion. It tests for an association between parental involvement abortion laws and state policies and the rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in women aged 15-19 and 20-24.

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What is the Impact of State Law and Institutional Policy on Health Care Worker Influenza Immunization Rates?

This study will take a state-by-state inventory of laws that regulate influenza immunization among people who work in hospitals. It will review policies that individual hospitals and health systems might have to require their employees to receive a flu vaccination, matching those findings with data on rates of vaccination among hospital workers to determine the effect such laws and policies have on vaccination rates.

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What Public Health Law Approaches Help Prevent Obesity?

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 physical activity. What measures work?

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Nutrition and Weight Status

Moving from Intuition to Evidence-Based Practice: Can Family Courts Promote Public Health?

Despite decades of interventions, research suggests intimate partner violence prevalence rates are increasing and results in increased healthcare costs for up to three years even after the violence has ceased. This study examines the intimate partner violence protection order process and whether legal mechanisms can be enhanced to improve victims’ health outcomes.

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With an Eye to the Law: Providing Client-Centered Care in the Shadow of Criminal Prosecution for HIV Exposure

This study aims to identify where and how the criminalization of HIV exposure has influenced health department policies, protocols, programs, and procedures, both formal and informal, involving staff interactions with persons who have or are at increased risk of contracting HIV. It will also examine how staff members at various levels within public health departments resolve (or leave unresolved) the tensions between criminal law, public health authority, and patient-centered care when considering the prospect of an HIV-positive client knowingly exposing others to HIV.

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Reassessing the Effectiveness of Prescription Monitoring Programs

Prescription drug overdose deaths, mostly from opioid pain relievers, now outpace motor vehicle fatalities in most states. In about 35 states, electronic databases known as prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) are intended to reduce abuse of prescription drugs and overdose by tracking pharmacy dispensing and making data available to clinicians and law enforcement. This study will provide evidence-based information of effectiveness to administrators and inform policy decisions at the national level.

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Evaluation of the Public Health Impact of School Anti-Bullying Legislation in Oregon

The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of model legislation designed to reduce the incidence of bullying among high school students, particularly those at higher risk for being ostracized by their peers.

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Marijuana Decriminalization and its Effects on Drug-Involved Driving in California

The primary purpose of the study will be to determine whether marijuana decriminalization in California is associated with an increase in the prevalence of marijuana-positive driving.

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Can Family Courts Reduce Domestic Violence and Improve Public Health?

This project will assess the effectiveness of unified family courts, as implemented in North Carolina, on health and school outcomes of children aged zero to 7 and health of women aged 18 to 49, through their effects in reducing rates of domestic violence.

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Do Mixed Use Land Zones Improve Public Health?

This project assesses the extent of the relationship between mixed-use zone comprehensiveness (as gleaned from municipal land use ordinances) and measures of walkability. The primary hypothesis is, controlling for city population size and SES, the higher mixed-use zone comprehensiveness (i.e. adherence to the American Planning Association’s model mixed-use zone), the higher its walkability. The unit of analysis is approximately 180 Mixed Land Use Zones in 25 California cities (with populations of 50,000 or above).

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Are Local Laws the Key to Reaching Children at Risk?

This study will examine a local housing inspection law put into place in Rochester, New York in 2006, and will look as well at laws in several other cities, to see if and how local legislation can be used as a tool to more effectively to fill the gap left between state and federal laws removing paint from gasoline and from the paint used in homes were put in place decades ago.

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

What Role Do Police Play in Management of Violence and Health?

This project explores the nexus between criminal justice and public health by using a randomized controlled design to asses the impact of the foot-beat enforcement strategy.

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Behavioral Economics, Courts, and Child Welfare

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.

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Effects of Maryland Alcohol Tax Policy on Traffic-Related Injuries

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 occurrence of fatal, as well as non-fatal injuries.

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Impact of Mental Health Parity Laws on Mental Health Treatment and Outcomes

This 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.

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An Examination of the Health Effect of Drug Laws and the Subsequent Restrictions Imposed via Welfare Reform on HIV Positive Individuals

In contrast to previous research, the PI will investigate the impact of drug laws and the subsequent sanctions imposed upon those formerly convicted of a drug law on the health of HIV positive individuals.

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Building Sustainability into State Public Health Laboratories: Addressing Legal Challenges to Sharing Services

This project is a series of qualitative case studies to better understand the legal challenges and opportunities, perceived and actual, related to shared delivery of laboratory services at the state level.

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Has the Federal Lead and Copper Rule Improved Public Health?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). The revisions will help reduce the public health problems caused by unsafe or toxic levels of lead in drinking water. This study will help identify gaps in existing policies on water sampling to measure lead levels, replacement of water lines that contain lead, and public education aimed at reducing exposure to lead.

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What legal structures support national accreditation of public health agencies?

This project will use a mapping study to assess the status of accreditation laws, policies and regulations in 20 states that have been identified as having or making progress towards accreditation, followed by a mechanism study involving process tracing in six case study states to examine how and why states developed, adopted, and implemented a particular legal structure.

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Measuring the Impact of Sources and Types of Funding on Health Care Outcomes for Children in Foster Care in Ohio

This study addresses: Does the source and/or type of funding, not just the amount of funding, impact health outcomes?

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Evaluation of Iowa’s Anti-Bullying Legislation: Compliance and Impact

This study will assess the implementation of Iowa’s anti-bullying legislation and the effects on student-reported bullying victimization.

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Building the Evidence: Creating a Framework for Assessing Costs and Impacts of Joint Use Agreements

This study will enumerate the costs, implementation barriers, facilitators, and the administrative and financial burden that joint-use agreements (JUAs) may impose on schools that in turn can impact children's access to recreational activity.

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Physical Activity

The Effect of Preemption of Local Tobacco Control Policies on Population Health

The study will examine the relationship between state laws that preempt local tobacco control policies and population health behaviors and outcomes.

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Chronic Disease

How Does Regulating Pseudoephedrine Access Affect Methamphetamine-related Public Health Outcomes?

This study will measure whether quantity restrictions, electronic tracking, or a doctor’s prescription requirement for purchases of pseudoephedrine reduce the public health costs of methamphetamine production and use.

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Is the Public Grading of Restaurants on Food Safety Worth the Costs?

This study will estimate the financial costs and potential health and public safety benefits of the implementation of a NYC food safety restaurant grading initiative.

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Food Safety

Saving Lives With Restorative Justice: Determining the Connection Between Criminal Diversion and Reduced Offender Mortality

This study will analyze the impact of restorative justice on offender health, using a unique dataset from a randomized control trial of restorative justice practices in Australia.

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Police Interventions with Persons Affected by Mental Illnesses

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, interfacing service systems, from public health to social welfare to law enforcement, the courts, and corrections.

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Firearms Laws, Mental Disorder, and Violence

The investigators will analyze merged, longitudinal, multivariable data from public mental health and criminal justice systems in Connecticut, Florida, and Virginia, to test the effectiveness of firearms laws' restrictions on access to guns for persons with a history of mental health adjudication.

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Is Informed Consent the Solution to the Challenges Associated with the Retention and Use of Residual Newborn Screening Dried Blood Samples?

This study will assess whether the Michigan Department of Community Health’s policy requiring parental consent for research use of residual newborn screening dried blood samples leads to the maintenance of a robust sample collection that supports population health-based research.

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Credible Offers, Wary Responses: A Peer-Staffed Qualitative Assessment of Court-Ordered Offers of Supported Housing to Adult Home Residents in New York

This study will study the implementation and outcomes of a court-originating remedial action to offer less restrictive housing to mentally ill adult home residents in New York.

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How New York State Public Health Laws Regulating Hospital Maternity Care Influence Breastfeeding Rates

This study investigates how a Breastfeeding Mothers Bill of Rights and a law requiring public reporting of hospital-specific breastfeeding rates affect changes in hospital breastfeeding policies and maternity care practices in New York.

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Impact of an Out-of-"Control" Alcohol Law in Washington State: Measuring Associated Changes in Alcohol Use by Adults and Youth

This project will assess how a new law in the state of Washington (Voter Initiative 1183, on 6/1/12) which abolishes state alcohol “control” is associated with changes in:

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Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

Public Health Agencies and Advocacy Under the Law

This project will explore how policies that govern public employees' participation in the policy process affect state health departments' effectiveness in advocating for sound public health laws and policies.

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The Effect of Peak-Shaving Regulations on the Activity, Toxic Emissions, and Health Impacts of Local Power Plants

This project aims to study whether laws that target reducing emissions from local polluting activities have distinguishable health impacts: What federal, state, and local regulations can reduce or shift electricity demand in New York City away from peak hours; how will local New York City power plants respond to that changing demand; and will those plant-specific responses have any significant health impacts for local populations?

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What is the Association Between Local Legal Infrastructure and Population Health?

State and local governments make important decisions about how resources and services — including public health services — are provided to citizens. This study will examine how these decisions impact population health.

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Do HIV Disclosure Laws Reduce Infection?

This project will examine the impact of New Jersey’s HIV disclosure laws on 500 HIV-positive and 250 “at risk” residents of New Jersey.

Measures include participants’ understanding of the law, perceived HIV related stigma, comfort with seropositive status disclosure, HIV testing and sexual behavior.

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Did Changes in Controlled Substance Prescribing Licensing Lead to Changes in Opioid Prescribing or Adverse Outcomes?

This study aims to evaluate the impact of three regulations on prescribing patterns, use of the online system to access the Utah Controlled Substances Database (CSD) and adverse drug events in Utah.

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Do Drug Patent Challenges Affect Public Health?

This project examines these legal challenges and their effects on the entry of generic drugs and access to medicines.

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What Works in Drafting State Public Health Policies?

This project will develop a framework for identifying factors that shape states’ choices among policy options across a number of public health policy issues, and understanding how these choices are related to population health.

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What is the Impact of Laws Addressing Consumption and Purchase of Sugar-Sweetened and Citric-Acid Drinks on Oral Health?

Dental erosion is a widespread and increasing problem. This study will answer the question of what law and legal practices impact the consumption and purchase in Central Appalachia of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and citric acid drinks (CADs) that adversely affect oral health.

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Chronic Disease

Oral Health

Will the New Health Care Decisions Act in Virginia Improve Public Health?

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.

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Relaxing State Retail Alcohol Controls: The Public Health Harms and Costs

In 2011, governors and conservative legislatures in four of 11 states with state-run monopoly spirits sales pushed to shift to private sales at many more outlets, while Georgia voted on allowing off-premises alcohol sales on Sundays.

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Mapping Laws Criminalizing HIV Transmission

This project will map US state laws criminalizing the transmission (or exposure of others to risk of transmission) of HIV. Using legal databases, the two-phase research process will first map criminalization statutes, and then reported judicial findings which characterize conduct risking HIV transmission as a common law crime (e.g., as a form of reckless endangerment or of battery).

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Family and Medical Leave Law: Variations in State Protections for Workers' Health

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. While there has been limited quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact and utilization of the federal FMLA, very little attention is known about the content or outcomes associated with state family and medical leave laws.

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How can public health law support intervention in drug overdoses?

Drug overdose deaths have surpassed traffic fatalities in Washington State and 15 other states. This study will examine the legal intent, implementation and outcomes of a new Washington state law to support intervening in drug overdoses. The law includes a Good Samaritan component that provides legal immunity from drug possession charges for people who overdose or seek aid for another person’s overdose. It also allows the prescribing of an opioid antidote medicine (Naloxone) to drug users and their partners.

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Making healthy choices: What works?

This project will explore how individuals make decisions about: 1) vaccinations, 2) sexual behavior, 3) preventative medication and health habits, 4) medical procedures and treatment, and 5) health insurance coverage. The study will map existing case law and regulations on the presentation of risk-related information, such as the validity and interpretation of waivers and disclaimers and will uncover patterns in choices and preferences building on behavioral insights.

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