Perspective Special Issues

How Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) Help Us to Select the Public Health Policies Most Likely to Maximise Health Gain, on the Basis of Best Public Health Science

  • Received: 19 November 2015 Accepted: 20 April 2016 Published: 23 April 2016
  • Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a decision support tool intended to present timely, evidence–based recommendations to decision makers in all sections of society in order to accentuate potential positive health and well-being impacts (and mitigate potential negative impacts) of policies, plans (including local and neighbourhood plans), programmes and projects (including infrastructure and local development proposals), in order to reduce health inequalities/disparities. HIA is a well established and proven means of linking research evidence from public health and the environmental sciences with equitable decision making processes at all levels, from local to global. It may also provide a platform for examination of research proposals to strengthen the impact statement therein, identifying potential for future public benefit. This paper highlights some of the main drivers for a timely re-emphasis on the use of best scientific evidence and systematic HIA to inform decision making for future public benefit, citing the example of air pollution.

    Citation: Dreaves Hilary A. How Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) Help Us to Select the Public Health Policies Most Likely to Maximise Health Gain, on the Basis of Best Public Health Science[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2016, 3(2): 235-241. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2016.2.235

    Related Papers:

  • Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a decision support tool intended to present timely, evidence–based recommendations to decision makers in all sections of society in order to accentuate potential positive health and well-being impacts (and mitigate potential negative impacts) of policies, plans (including local and neighbourhood plans), programmes and projects (including infrastructure and local development proposals), in order to reduce health inequalities/disparities. HIA is a well established and proven means of linking research evidence from public health and the environmental sciences with equitable decision making processes at all levels, from local to global. It may also provide a platform for examination of research proposals to strengthen the impact statement therein, identifying potential for future public benefit. This paper highlights some of the main drivers for a timely re-emphasis on the use of best scientific evidence and systematic HIA to inform decision making for future public benefit, citing the example of air pollution.


    加载中
    [1] Gothenburg Consensus paper available at HIA Gateway: Public Health England. 1999. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/o3dbn87.
    [2] Dahlgren,G., Whitehead,M. Socioenvironmental model of health. NHS Scotland webpage. 1991. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/a2leomw.
    [3] EU Member States. Declaration on “Health in All Policies”. Rome: December 2007. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/ok4rx5c.
    [4] Stone, V (ed.) Health in All Policies. Training Manual (p146). World Health Organisation Geneva. 2015, ISBN 978 92 4 150798 1. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/p7fj2to.
    [5] Nowacki, J., Martuzzi, M. Capacity Building in Environment and Health (CBEH) Project. Using impact assessment in environment and health: a framework. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2013. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/qcl3dyd.
    [6] Gulis,G., Mekel,O (eds). Assessment of Population Health Risks of Policies. 2014, ISBN 978-1-4614-8597-1 (e-book). Available from: http://tinyurl.com/oylehko.
    [7] Dreaves, H et al. Urban Health Impact Assessment Methodology (UrHIA) IMPACT, University of Liverpool. 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/omun9rz .
    [8] Kemm,J. Developing Health Impact Assessment in Wales. National Assembly for Wales. 1999. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/nctlarv.
    [9] WHO Regional Office for Europe. Economic cost of the health impact of air pollution in Europe: Clean air, health and wealth. 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/nb7v4dw.
    [10] Fehr,R et al. Health in Impact Assessments: Opportunities not to be missed. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe. 2014. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/ptlguww.
    [11] Climate and Clean Air Coalition. World Health Assembly passes landmark resolution on air pollution and health. 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/q9zmll4.
    [12] WHO World Health Assembly. Health and the environment: addressing the health impact of air pollution. Agenda Item 14.6 A68/A/CONF./2 Rev.1 26 May 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/p6w8om4.
    [13] World Health Organisation. Sixth report of committee A. Draft A68/75. 27 May 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/pnjtqhe.
    [14] Hawe,P et al. A Framework for building capacity to improve health. New South Wales Health Department. 2001, ISBN 0 7347 3124 8. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/paabjzs.
    [15] Nowacki, J. Presentation to ESRC Seminar, University of Liverpool, 8th October. 2015. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/q2ksbfj.
    [16] Birley M. Health Impact Assessment. Principles and Practice. Routledge (e-book). 2011. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/qdwmshf.
    [17] Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Geneva, World Health Organization. 2008. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/oov72qz.
    [18] Bell,R., Grobicki, L.,Hamelmann,C. Addressing Social, Economic and Environmental Determinants of Health and the Health Divide in the Context of Sustainable Human Development. UCL Institute of Health Equity for UNDP. 2014. Available from: http://tinyurl.com/negbtyc.
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2016 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(5357) PDF downloads(1361) Cited by(3)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Figures(2)

Other Articles By Authors

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog