RESUMEN
Despite the potential for public health strategies to decrease the substantial burden of injuries, injury prevention infrastructure in state health departments is underdeveloped. We sought to describe the legal support for injury prevention activities at state health departments. We searched the Lexis database for state laws providing authority for those activities, and categorized the scope of those laws. Only 10 states have authority that covers the full scope of injury prevention practice; in the others, legal authority is piecemeal, nonspecific, or nonexistent. More comprehensive legal authority could help health departments access data for surveillance, work with partners, address sensitive issues, and garner funding. Efforts should be undertaken to enhance legal support for injury prevention activities across the country.
Asunto(s)
Planificación en Salud/legislación & jurisprudencia , Promoción de la Salud/legislación & jurisprudencia , Planes Estatales de Salud/legislación & jurisprudencia , Heridas y Lesiones/prevención & control , Planificación en Salud/estadística & datos numéricos , Promoción de la Salud/estadística & datos numéricos , Humanos , Gobierno Estatal , Estados UnidosRESUMEN
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.