Interaction between Legal and Social Needs in Their Association with Self-rated Health in a National Sample of Veterans

Abstract

Abstract: Many health-related social needs, such as financial insecurity, are interconnected with legal needs. However, little is known about which social needs are more likely to be associated with legal needs, or whether legal and other needs interact to affect health. Using data from a 2020 national mailed survey assessing social needs among Veterans who had or were at risk for cardiovascular disease (N=2,801) and linked administrative data, linear regression models tested interactions between legal and other social needs, and their associations with self-rated health. In a model examining the interaction of financial and legal needs, experiencing financial but not legal needs was as strongly associated with worse health (b=–0.58, 95% CI –0.69, –0.46) as experiencing both financial and legal needs (b= –0.55, 95% CI –0.70, –0.40). Financial needs are important to Veterans' health and further research is needed to determine how financial and legal needs should be triaged by providers.