Sanner Lindsey, Grant Sean, Walter-McCabe Heather, Silverman Ross D
Lindsey Sanner is with the Center for Health Policy, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis. Sean Grant is with the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis. Heather Walter-McCabe is with the Department of Social Work and Law and the Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indiana University, Indianapolis. Ross D. Silverman is with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, and the Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indiana University, Indianapolis.
Am J Public Health. 2021 Jun;111(6):1095-1098. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306227. Epub 2021 Apr 15.
Policy surveillance is critical in examining the ways law functions as a structural and social determinant of health. To date, little policy surveillance research has focused on examining intrastate variations in the structure and health impact of laws. Intrastate policy surveillance poses unique methodological challenges because of the complex legal architecture within states and inefficient curation of local laws.We discuss our experience with these intrastate policy surveillance challenges in Indiana, a state with 92 counties and several populous cities, a complicated history of home rule, systemically underfunded local governments, and variations in demography, geography, and technology adoption. In our case study, we expended significant time and resources to obtain county and city ordinances through online code libraries, jurisdiction Web sites, and (most notably) visits to offices to scan documents ourselves.A concerted effort is needed to ensure that local laws of all kinds are stored online in organized, searchable, and open access systems. Such an effort is vital to achieve the aspirational goals of policy surveillance at the intrastate level.
政策监测对于审视法律作为健康的结构和社会决定因素的作用方式至关重要。迄今为止，很少有政策监测研究专注于考察州内法律结构及其对健康影响的差异。由于州内复杂的法律架构以及地方法规管理效率低下，州内政策监测带来了独特的方法学挑战。我们讨论了在印第安纳州应对这些州内政策监测挑战的经验，该州有92个县和几个人口众多的城市，地方自治历史复杂，地方政府系统性资金不足，且在人口统计学、地理和技术采用方面存在差异。在我们的案例研究中，我们花费了大量时间和资源，通过在线法规库、辖区网站，以及（最值得注意的是）亲自前往办公室扫描文件来获取县和市的条例。需要共同努力确保各类地方法规以有组织、可搜索且开放获取的系统在线存储。这样的努力对于实现州内层面政策监测的理想目标至关重要。
