Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38877451›Full record

ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2024

Access to civil justice as a social determinant of health: a legal epidemiological cross-sectional study.

Eddy Hin Chung Fung, Dong Dong

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Article in International journal for equity in health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Eddy Hin Chung FungFaculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Dong DongJC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. dongdong@cuhk.edu.hk.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAlthough it is widely acknowledged that access to civil justice (ATJ) is a key social determinant of health (SDOH), the existing literature lacks empirical evidence supporting ATJ as a SDOH for specific dimensions of health.

methodsA legal epidemiological, cross-sectional, postal survey was conducted on n = 908 randomly sampled participants in Hong Kong in March 2023. Data collected were perceptions of the civil justice system, health, and sociodemographics. Perceived ATJ was assessed using a modified version of the Inaccessibility of Justice scale (IOJ) and Perceived Inequality of Justice scale (PIJ), i.e. the "modified IOJ-PIJ", consisting of 12 of the original 13 items from both scales divided into two subdomains: "procedural fairness", and "outcome neutrality". For health data, quality of life was assessed using the Hong Kong version of the Abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF(HK)), psychological distress (including symptoms of anxiety and depression) was assessed using the four-Item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), and having comorbidities was assessed using Sangha's Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire (SCQ). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to investigate the relationships between perceived ATJ and the measured health outcomes.

resultsSEM demonstrated that both subdomains for ATJ had significantly negative associations (B < 0; p < 0.05) with all quality-of-life subdomains, except for between outcome neutrality with social relationships; both subdomains for ATJ had significantly positive association (B > 0; p < 0.05) with both anxiety and depression; and, after adjusting for age, only "procedural fairness" had significantly positive association (B > 0; p < 0.05) with having comorbidities.

conclusionThis study provided empirical evidence that ATJ is a SDOH for specific dimensions of health. The results of this study encourage laws, policies, and initiatives aimed at improving ATJ, as well as collaborative efforts from the legal and health sectors through health-justice partnerships, and from the broader community, to safeguard and promote public health by strengthening ATJ.

Indexed as

Social Determinants of HealthSocial JusticeAdultAgedCross-Sectional StudiesDepressionFemaleHong KongHumansMaleMiddle AgedQuality of LifeSurveys and QuestionnairesYoung AdultAccess to justiceCivil justiceHealth-justice partnershipHong KongLaw for healthMedical-legal partnershipSocial determinants of health

Identifiers

PMID38877451
PMCPMC11179223

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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.