IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v5y2008i2p351-373.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Health Cost of Civil‐Law Problems: Further Evidence of Links Between Civil‐Law Problems and Morbidity, and the Consequential Use of Health Services

Author

Listed:
  • Pascoe Pleasence
  • Nigel J. Balmer
  • Alexy Buck

Abstract

There is considerable evidence of links between social and health problems. Some of these links involve social problems that can be addressed through civil legal process, and may be described as civil‐law problems. Various initiatives have been implemented around the world to link health and legal advice services to promote better health and justice outcomes. This study examines the links between civil‐law problems and morbidity. It uses new data to replicate an earlier analysis of these links, then builds on this by exploring the extent to which problems are reported to act to bring about ill health. It also details the reported consequent use of health services. We examined survey respondents’ self‐reports of long‐standing illness/disability, use of health services, and experience of 18 types of civil‐law problems. Data were drawn from a random national survey of 5,015 adults living in 3,832 residential households across England and Wales. Having controlled for a range of other social and demographic predictors, we found a significant association between age‐standardized illness/disability and civil‐law problems, one that increases with illness/disability severity. In particular, we found significant associations with 10 of 18 principal problem types. We found that adverse health consequences were reported to have followed over one‐third of problems, and some problem types in particular. This led to significant use of health services. We highlight the contribution that legal services may make to public health. We argue that despite the difficulties faced in England and Wales by initiatives such as Health Action Zones and Community Legal Services Partnerships, and despite the cost‐benefit ratio of legal advice and assistance (in either the justice or health fields) remaining unclear, the more effective coordination of health and legal services is likely to improve both health and justice outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascoe Pleasence & Nigel J. Balmer & Alexy Buck, 2008. "The Health Cost of Civil‐Law Problems: Further Evidence of Links Between Civil‐Law Problems and Morbidity, and the Consequential Use of Health Services," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(2), pages 351-373, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:5:y:2008:i:2:p:351-373
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00127.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00127.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00127.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams, D.R. & Neighbors, H.W. & Jackson, J.S., 2003. "Racial/ethnic discrimination and health: Findings from community studies," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 200-208.
    2. Jonathan M. Stein, 2001. "The Future of Social Justice in Britain: A New Mission for the Community Legal Service," CASE Papers 048, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Margherita Saraceno, 2021. "Does the open-cell regime foster inmates’ legal capability? Evidence from two Italian prisons," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 89-135, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liat Ayalon, 2018. "Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(5), pages 860-869.
    2. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    3. Song, Jieun & Mailick, Marsha R. & Greenberg, Jan S., 2018. "Health of parents of individuals with developmental disorders or mental health problems: Impacts of stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 152-158.
    4. Gaeul Kim & Jinmok Kim & Su-Kyoung Lee & Juho Sim & Yangwook Kim & Byung-Yoon Yun & Jin-Ha Yoon, 2020. "Multidimensional gender discrimination in workplace and depressive symptoms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, July.
    5. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    6. Samson, Frank L., 2015. "Racial resentment and smoking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 164-168.
    7. Dušan Drbohlav & Dagmar Dzúrová, 2017. "Social Hazards as Manifested Workplace Discrimination and Health (Vietnamese and Ukrainian Female and Male Migrants in Czechia)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, October.
    8. Armijos Bravo, Grace & Vall Castelló, Judit, 2021. "Terrorist attacks, Islamophobia and newborns’ health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Shervin Assari, 2018. "Parental Education Better Helps White than Black Families Escape Poverty: National Survey of Children’s Health," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-14, May.
    10. David Mhlanga & Rufaro Garidzirai, 2020. "The Influence of Racial Differences in the Demand for Healthcare in South Africa: A Case of Public Healthcare," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-10, July.
    11. Pamplin, John R. & Bates, Lisa M., 2021. "Evaluating hypothesized explanations for the Black-white depression paradox: A critical review of the extant evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    12. Hee-Jung Jun & Soojeong Han, 2020. "The Effect of Discrimination on Stress among Public Housing Residents: A Comparative Study between Social-Mix and Independent Public Housing Complexes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-14, September.
    13. Fujishiro, Kaori & Xu, Jun & Gong, Fang, 2010. "What does "occupation" represent as an indicator of socioeconomic status?: Exploring occupational prestige and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2100-2107, December.
    14. Hayward, R. David & Krause, Neal, 2014. "The effect of belonging to an alcohol-proscribing religious group on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-8.
    15. Saleh, Lena Denise & Operario, Don, 2009. "Moving beyond "the Down Low": A critical analysis of terminology guiding HIV prevention efforts for African American men who have secretive sex with men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 390-395, January.
    16. Williams, David R. & Gonzalez, Hector M. & Williams, Stacey & Mohammed, Selina A. & Moomal, Hashim & Stein, Dan J., 2008. "Perceived discrimination, race and health in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 441-452, August.
    17. Wencong Cai & Yuanjie Deng & Qiangqiang Zhang & Haiyu Yang & Xuexi Huo, 2021. "Does Income Inequality Impair Health? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, March.
    18. Lindström, Martin, 2008. "Social capital, anticipated ethnic discrimination and self-reported psychological health: A population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 1-13, January.
    19. Gee, Gilbert C. & Spencer, Michael & Chen, Juan & Yip, Tiffany & Takeuchi, David T., 2007. "The association between self-reported racial discrimination and 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders among Asian Americans nationwide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 1984-1996, May.
    20. Fernando Molero & Patricia Recio & Cristina García-Ael & María Fuster & Pilar Sanjuán, 2013. "Measuring Dimensions of Perceived Discrimination in Five Stigmatized Groups," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 901-914, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:5:y:2008:i:2:p:351-373. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.