Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 114, Issue 6, November 2000, Pages 431-433
Public Health

Leading Article
Can Health Impact Assessment fulfil the expectations it raises?

https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ph.1900708Get rights and content

Abstract

The United Kingdom and other European Governments are increasingly calling for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of policies in order to predict how they will affect the health of populations. Approaches to HIA can be characterised as broad focus (holistic, sociological, qualitative) or tight focus (limited, epidemiological, quantitative). HIA must add value to decision making and lead to better decisions than would have otherwise been made. The quality of HIA will be judged on its utility, its predictive accuracy and its process. HIA must be closely integrated with the decision making process. HIA may be undertaken in combination with Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or separately. HIA does not mean that health should take primacy over other policy goals but does ensure that health is considered. Public Health (2000) 114, 431–433.

References (30)

  • M Benzeval et al.

    Tackling Inequalities in Health: An Agenda for Action

    (1995)
  • D Acheson

    Independent Enquiry into Inequalities in Health: Report

    (1998)
  • Saving lives: Our Healthier Nation

    (1999)
  • Better Health; Better Wales

    (1998)
  • Working Together for a Healthier Scotland

    (1998)
  • Well Into 2000

    (1997)
  • K Putters

    Health Impact Screening

    (1997)
  • M Koivusalo et al.

    Healthy public policies in Finland

    Eurohealth

    (1998)
  • K Berensson

    Focusing on health in the political arena

    Eurohealth

    (1998)
  • R Fehr

    Environmental health impact assessment-evaluation of a 10 step model

    Epidemiology

    (1999)
  • M Hubel

    Evaluating the health impact of policies: a challenge

    Eurohealth

    (1998)
  • An Introduction to the Health for All Policy Framework for the WHO European Region

    (1999)
  • Samuel A Scott

    Health Impact Assessment; an idea whose time has come

    Br Med J.

    (1996)
  • Health and Environmental Impact Assessment

    (1998)
  • Cited by (43)

    • Networks, power and knowledge in the planning system: A case study of energy from waste

      2017, Progress in Planning
      Citation Excerpt :

      E1's definition of ‘good health’ was procedural and biophysical. E1 drew on studies that are ‘tight focus’ i.e. largely based on epidemiology and toxicology to make health risk assessments of technological processes (Kemm, 2000). The broader impacts of the MREC facility on the well-being of the local community were from health impacts like noise, vibration and stress.

    • Health impact assessment research and practice: A place for paradigm positioning?

      2012, Environmental Impact Assessment Review
      Citation Excerpt :

      HIA has attempted to bridge this divide with an explicit discussion of values in the early scoping step which plans the conduct of the HIA. However, these are usually discussed in relation to definition of health (broad or tight) rather than epistemological position (Harris and Spickett, 2011; Kemm, 2000). During 2010 and 2011, we separately undertook reviews of international literature to assess the extent and nature of attention given to paradigm positioning and these related concerns.

    • Health impact assessment in Australia: A review and directions for progress

      2011, Environmental Impact Assessment Review
      Citation Excerpt :

      ‘Policy HIA’ is influenced by the fields of health promotion, health needs assessment and evidence based medicine (Birley, 2002; Mindell and Joffe, 2003; Ahmad, 2004; Kemm and Parry, 2004). The emphasis is on addressing the social determinants of health while promoting collaboration and stakeholder participation in the HIA process (Kemm, 2000; Birley, 2002; Ahmad, 2004; Cole and Fielding, 2007). The focus is largely on HIA as a process to influence ‘healthy public policy’ by improving considerations of health and the determinants of health within the policies being developed by health and other sectors, such as housing and transport (Banken, 2003; Harris et al., 2007a,b; Kemm, 2001; Gagnon et al., 2007; Ståhl et al., 2006; WHO, 2008a,b).

    • Assessing health impacts in complex eco-epidemiological settings in the humid tropics: The centrality of scoping

      2011, Environmental Impact Assessment Review
      Citation Excerpt :

      In contrast to this long history, impact assessments for large-scale development projects are relatively new (IAIA, 2010). Within the impact assessment suite, health impact assessment (HIA) is the most recent addition dating back to the late 1980s/early 1990s, but is increasingly becoming a routine feature of the project permitting and approval process (Kemm, 2000; Birley, 2003; Mindell and Joffe, 2003). In the developing world, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has played an important role in this regard through inclusion of community health as a specific performance standard (number 4) (IFC, 2006a,b).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text