Since laws and policies are a prime example of societal-level structures, it follows that they have an impact on the health of those impacted by the law/policy.  Interestingly, this relationship has two sides; laws/policies that have a positive effect on the involved population (e.g. legalization of same-sex marriage) are a protective factor to that population's health.

Laws and policies impacting health outcomes

These social structures lead to poor health outcomes.  An example of this is living in a neighborhood without access to fresh foods; it operates at a neighborhood level rather than an individual one, and it is linked to health outcomes because of the resulting poor diets.

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These can be things like laws; institutional policies and practices; national, regional, state, and local economic and political infrastructures; neighborhood and workplace conditions; and community-level cultural ideologies.

Societal-level social structures

Taylor, C. J. (2019).  Health consequences of laws and public policies that target, or protect, marginalized populations. Sociology Compass, 14, 1-13.


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