Legal Frameworks and Their Impact on Public Health Outcomes in Developing Countries

Health systems in developing countries are already limited by poor infrastructure, weak governance and health services access issues; vulnerable populations (particularly in rural regions) experience the greatest impact. This impacts the detection of diseases, continuity of care, and outbreak management. This paper explores how legalistic approaches to SDHs such as poverty, education and sanitation can facilitate better public health outcomes in the developing world. A dual approach encompassing a multi-stage structured survey of 400 randomly sampled participants in rural and urban settings. Data on the effectiveness of laws related to health were collected through a survey and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the one-sample t-test. Mean ratings indicated that respondents viewed legal frameworks as moderately effective with significant differences in perceptions regarding access to and quality of sanitation services, educational outcomes, and poverty alleviation laws. Although the health policy enforcement and access to healthcare were perceived overall positively, significant challenges persist in their implementation (especially in rural areas). Therefore, after a few decades of global health advancements as a result from the legal outline on public health improvements, this article concludes with challenges that limit its real implementations based on enforcement issues with institutions and resource allocation. Implementing policy and working towards structural challenges such as governance and enforcement of the legal framework are three areas that could improve health outcomes in developing countries.