Health impact assessment (HIA) has been advanced as a means of bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers, particularly in sectors where health impacts may not otherwise be considered. This article examines lessons for HIA in the United States from the related and relatively well-developed field of environmental impact assessment (EIA). We reviewed the EIA literature an...

Health impact assessment (HIA) can ensure that health is a core element of sustainable urban planning. Based on the experience of the NSW HIA Project, we discuss the current strengths of HIA and challenges facing it as an urban sustainability tool across five areas: the use of evidence; integrating HIA with environmental impact assessments; including consideration of equity; recognising wider d...

The experience of health impact assessment (HIA) in NSW has shown that it is possible to incorporate considerations of health impacts into decision-making concerning urban planning. In NSW, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 is the regulatory framework governing urban planning. This legislative system provides opportunities for HIA and the consideration of health impacts as part...

A situation analysis was undertaken to assess impediments to health impact assessment (HIA) in the South-East Asia Region of WHO (SEARO). The countries of the region were assessed on the policy framework and procedures for HIA, existing infrastructure required to support HIA, the capacity for undertaking HIA, and the potential for intersectoral collaboration. The findings show that environmenta...

The determinants of health are those factors that have the potential to affect health, either positively or negatively, and include a range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors. In the practice of health impact assessment (HIA), the stage at which the determinants of health are considered for inclusion is during the scoping step. The scoping step is intended to identify how ...

The nine health impact assessment (HIA) case studies in this issue represent a considerable contribution to the HIA literature and provide a number of lessons. These lessons include the value of using evidence in HIA to aid decision-making; the various forms that stakeholder and community involvement in HIA can take; and the fact that HIA can act as a catalyst for intersectoral engagement. They...

The value of health impact assessment (HIA) to sectors outside the health domain is increasingly being recognised. A Victorian study explored the application of HIA within a regeneration context. What emerged is a complex analysis of the practical dimensions of applying HIA in this context.

AIMS Implementation of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Danish municipalities has been analyzed using the Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Municipalities were chosen from among those who presented their health policies on websites according to the status of inclusion of HIA into health policy. METHODS Qualitative interviews were conducted in 6 municipalities (3 with HIA inducted in th...

The first health impact assessment (HIA) performed on a high level local government policy in New Zealand was undertaken on the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy in 2005. This report describes its development and implementation and the results from the process evaluation including some recommendations made in the assessment. We concluded that HIA is a useful tool for local governm...