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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Nov 13, 2008
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Anthony D. Moulton
Shawna L. Mercer
Tanja Popovic
Peter A. Briss
Richard A. Goodman
Melisa L. Thombley
Robert A. Hahn
Daniel M. Fox
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American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2007.130278

Health Policy and Ethics

The Scientific Basis for Law as a Public Health Tool

Anthony D. Moulton 1*, Shawna L. Mercer 1, Tanja Popovic 1, Peter A. Briss 1, Richard A. Goodman 1, Melisa L. Thombley 1, Robert A. Hahn 1, Daniel M. Fox 2

1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2 Milbank Memorial Fund

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: adm6{at}cdc.gov.


  Abstract

Systematic reviews are generating valuable scientific knowledge about the impact of public health laws, but this knowledge is not readily accessible to policy makers. We identified 65 systematic reviews of studies on the effectiveness of 52 public health laws: 27 of those laws were found effective, 23 had insufficient evidence to judge effectiveness, 1 was harmful, and 1 was found to be ineffective. This is a valuable, scientific foundation—that uses the highest relevant standard of evidence—for the role of law as a public health tool.

Additional primary studies and systematic reviews are needed to address significant gaps in knowledge about the laws’ public health impact, as are energetic, sustained initiatives to make the findings available to public policy makers.

Key Words: Health Law, Health Policy, Statistics/Evaluation/Research




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