In an article released today in Health Affairs Forefront, 30 of the nation’s foremost health policy researchers warn that recent actions and statements by the National Institutes of Health that policymakers are now no longer considered a stakeholder group within the scope of NIH could have rippling and concerning consequences for US public health.

Led by Center for Public Health Law Research director Scott Burris, the authors argue that as the nation’s premier health research funder, NIH has an obligation to support health policy research, which has been at the center of many of the greatest public health achievements of the past century, including reductions in smoking, improvements in motor vehicle safety, cleaner air and water, and control of infectious diseases. All have depended on research concerning the design, implementation, and effects of laws, regulations, and other policy interventions.

“For decades, NIH has funded research on how policies shape our environment and society, and how policies can make those places healthier.  It would be a tragedy to stop now, when many places in America are seeing their health decline,” said Burris. “Congress has instructed NIH to study the social factors that influence our health. Congress is made up of policymakers who need research that documents the effects of the laws they pass. Ending support for health policy research amounts to NIH turning its back on perhaps its most important stakeholders.”

“At every level of government, policymakers make decisions that shape health,” the authors write. “Because policy shapes health, research on policy is health research … Questions about whether a policy works, for whom, under what circumstances, and at what cost are fundamentally scientific questions.” 

Understanding the health consequences of policy is not peripheral to NIH’s mission. It is central to it.

The article is available at Health Affairs Forefront.

Authors

Scott Burris is a Professor at Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law

Jamie F. Chriqui is Senior Associate Dean and Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health

Y. Tony Yang is Professor of Health Policy and Associate Dean for Health Policy and Population Science at the George Washington University School of Nursing and Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement

S. Bryn Austin is Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Lisa F. Berkman is the Thomas D. Cabot Research Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Ross C. Brownson is the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis

Magdalena Cerdá is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor and Chair in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale University

Kao-Ping Chua is the Marilyn Fisher Blanch Research Professor of Child Health Policy and Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School

Ana V. Diez Roux is Distinguished University Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health

Gregg Gonsalves is Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale University

Rita Hamad is Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Mark D. Hayward is Centennial Commission Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin

Kelli A. Komro is Professor in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health

Nancy Krieger is Professor of Social Epidemiology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University 

Laura D. Lindberg is Professor and Director of the Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Concentration in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health, Rutgers University.

Bruce G. Link is Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Sociology in the School of Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside

Julie Maslowsky is Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan

Angela McGowan is Senior Director of the Alliance for the Public’s Health at the American Public Health Association

Jennifer Karas Montez is University Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School

Kimberly M. Nelson is Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health

Cynthia Osborne is Professor of Early Childhood Education and Policy and Executive Director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development

Rosalie Liccardo Pacula is Professor, Elizabeth Garrett Chair in Health Policy, Economics and Law, and Department Chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the USC Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California

Jonathan Purtle is Professor of Public Health Policy and Management in the Department of Public Health Policy and Management at the NYU School of Global Public Health, New York University

Megan Reynolds is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah

Sarah C. M. Roberts is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and ANSIRH at the University of California, San Francisco

Cason D. Schmit is Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Health Law and Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health

Jeffrey W. Swanson is Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine

Alexander C. Wagenaar is Professor Emeritus in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida

Steven H. Woolf is Professor and C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Distinguished Chair in Population Health and Health Equity in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University

Shannon N. Zenk is Division Director and Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health