TY - JOUR T1 - Medical-Legal Partnership Effects on Mental Health, Health Care Use, and Quality of Life in Primary Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220349R1 SP - jabfm.2022.220349R1 AU - Winston Liaw AU - Thomas F. Northrup AU - Angela L. Stotts AU - Christine Bakos-Block AU - Robert Suchting AU - Alvin Chen AU - Abigail Hernandez AU - Lisandra Finzetto AU - Charles Green AU - Thomas Murphy Y1 - 2023/04/07 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/early/2023/04/06/jabfm.2022.220349R1.abstract N2 - Purpose: To determine whether an immediate referral to a medical-legal partnership (MLP), compared with a 6-month waitlist control, improved mental health, health care use, and quality of life.Methods: This trial randomly assigned individuals to an immediate referral or a wait-list control. The MLP involved a collaboration between the primary care clinic and a legal services organization. The primary outcome was stress (6 months) as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Secondary measures included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7); Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS); and emergency department (ED), urgent care, and hospital visits. Assessments were at baseline and 3-, 6-, and 9-month follow-ups. Bayesian statistical inference and a 75% posterior probability threshold were used to identify noteworthy differences.Results: Immediate referral was associated with lower PSS scores and higher GAD-7 scores. PROMIS scores were higher for the immediate referral group with respect to several subdomains. At 6 months, the immediate referral group demonstrated 21% fewer ED visits and 75.6% more hospital visits.Conclusion: Immediate referral to the MLP was associated with lower stress and a lower rate of ED visits but higher anxiety and a higher rate of hospital visits.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03805126. ER -