Health Impact Assessment

Definition

  1. Screening: Is an assessment required? Determines the potential health implications of the policy or project under consideration to determine if an HIA is, in fact, required. Has a previous HIA been done?
  1. Scoping: Identify key health issues and public concerns that should be considered in the assessment. Develop a plan for the HIA

A combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, programme, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within a population e.g. housing development, urban regeneration project, youth unemployment policy

  1. Preliminaries

Human resources: Your role and team. Establish a multidisciplinary steering committee involving all stakeholders with clear ToR and scope.

Time frame

Reporting & communication

Aim 1) To systematically assess the potential health impacts, both positive and negative, intended or unintended, of projects, programmes, and policies
2) To improve the quality of public policy decisions by making recommendations that are likely to enhance predicted positive health impacts and minimise negative ones.

Economic issues: the size of the population affected, the costs of the project and their distribution. The costs of the project, and their distribution

Outcome issues: the nature of potential health impacts, the likely nature and extent of disruption caused to communities by the project

Epidemiological issues:the degree of certainty of the health impacts, the likely incidence/prevalence of health impacts, severity of health impacts, the size of the any probably impacts.

Financial resources: Budget

Expected outputs

  1. Appraisal: Understanding current profile of community (baseline), likely impacts to health determinants, significance. May be rapid or in-depth depending on resources.

Policy analysis

Profiling the community

Interview stakeholders and key informants

Identify health determinants affected

Assess available evidence: peer-reviewed and grey literature

Establish priority impacts

Social impacts

Physical impacts

Environmental impacts

Biomedical impacts

Understand the context: Why now? Social and political context

Confirm appropriateness of steering committee, ensure all stakeholders represented.
ToR confirmed, scope, timeframe, budget confirmed.

Possible exam egs: Fracking, coal mine (Adani)

  1. Monitoring: monitor actual health impacts to build evidence base
  1. Recommendations: Conclusions are drawn from available data, and recommendations are made that might remove/mitigate negative impacts on environment and health, and enhance positive benefits.