ArticleThe Milbank quarterly2010
Making the case for laws that improve health: a framework for public health law research.
Article in The Milbank quarterly, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
95 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A research agenda for understanding how social inequality is linked to brain structure and function.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Learning from the Drug Policy Curriculum: People Who Use Drugs Policing in the Context of Decriminalization.Contemporary drug problems · 2026Article
- The policy exposome of dementia: Gaps, opportunities, and research agenda.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Navigating spatial barriers in healthcare: health equity and end-of-life care infrastructure in South Korea and China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Predictive estimation of economic outcome changes associated with legal frameworks and public health policy conditions.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Are secondary cities in Asia and Africa ready for food systems transformation? Policy insights from Bangladesh, Kenya, Rwanda, and the Philippines.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Evaluating economic and health-system associations of a national public health legal framework: evidence from China's basic medical and health care and health promotion law.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A Call for Formal Reporting Standards for Legal Research in Public Health Studies.American journal of public health · 2025Article
- Implementation of Teen Dating Violence Laws and Policies in High Schools: Staff and Student Perceptions.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2025Article
- Legal and regulatory responses to online gambling harms: a scoping review of evidence.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Creating a Classification System of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Policies: A Research Protocol.Substance use & addiction journal · 2025Article
- China's biosafety/biosecurity governance: evolution, challenges, and architecture design.Frontiers of medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Policy changes to US federal infant feeding laws and regulations from 2014-2023: evidence that the 2022 infant formula shortage had a narrow policy impact.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- COVID-19 state emergency rental assistance program dataset.Data in brief · 2025Article
- Applying a Weight Stigma Lens to Australian and International Obesity-Related Policies for Women Across the Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum Periods: A Mapping Review.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Review
- State Parental Consent Law and Treatment Use Among Adolescents With Depression.JAMA pediatrics · 2025Article
- Bills to Restrict Access to and Harm From Indoor Tanning Facilities in US State Legislatures, 1992‒2023.American journal of public health · 2025Article
- The relationship between public law-abiding tendency and safe COVID-19 behaviors, development of a new scale, and association with health-related behaviors.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2025Article
- State and county level legislative approaches to address racial/ethnic health inequities in Maryland (2012-2021).Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextPublic health law has received considerable attention in recent years and has become an essential field in public health. Public health law research, however, has received less attention.
methodsExpert commentary.
findingsThis article explores public health law research, defined as the scientific study of the relation of law and legal practices to population health. The article offers a logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches to studying the effects of law on public health. Research on the content and prevalence of public health laws, processes of adopting and implementing laws, and the extent to which and mechanisms through which law affects health outcomes can use methods drawn from epidemiology, economics, sociology, and other disciplines. The maturation of public health law research as a field depends on methodological rigor, adequate research funding, access to appropriate data sources, and policymakers' use of research findings.
conclusionsPublic health law research is a young field but holds great promise for supporting evidence-based policy making that will improve population health.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.