Health impact assessment (HIA) attempts an extremely difficult task. It tries not only to project the impacts of policies, programmes and developments on public health but to influence the political decision-making process on the basis of its findings. Given its high ambitions, it is not surprising that governments have encountered difficulties in institutionalizing HIA within the process of ma...

The concept, techniques, and applications of health impact assessment (HIA) hold promise to raise the profi le of health within the overall project, policy and programme planning, and assessment cycle. HIA in the public sector has progressed over the past two decades with a strong Eurocentric focus on transportation and social programmes and policies. In 1999, the publication of the Gothenburg ...

BACKGROUND Within many parts of the country, the NHS is undertaking reconfiguration of services. Such proposals can prove a tipping point and provoke public protest, often with significant involvement of local and national politicians. We undertook a rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of a proposed reconfiguration of maternity services in Huddersfield and Halifax in England. The aim of the HI...

BACKGROUND Health Impact Assessment (HIA) involves assessing how proposals may alter the determinants of health prior to implementation and recommends changes to enhance positive and mitigate negative impacts. HIAs growing use needs to be supported by a strong evidence base, both to validate the value of its application and to make its application more robust. We have carried out the first syst...

BACKGROUND Policy decisions made within all sectors have the potential to influence population health and equity. Recognition of this provides impetus for the health sector to engage with other sectors to facilitate the development of policies that recognise, and aim to improve, population outcomes. This paper compares the approaches implemented to facilitate such engagement in two Australian j...

conclusions according to the results of this study, with increasing load of traffic, there is an increasing need for proper consideration plans to control noise pollution and prevent its effects. results according to the research findings, the equivalent sound pressure levels in all stations were 76.28 ± 3.12 db (mean ± sd). according to sound measurements and the survey questionnaire, noise po...

OBJECTIVES This study describes the design and implementation of a health impact assessment (HIA) conducted in 2010 of the regeneration project of San Fernando Street, the main avenue crossing the San Miguel-El Castillo neighborhood in Alcala de Guadaíra (Seville, Spain). This project is part of the wider URBAN Plan aimed at the social, urban and economic regeneration of the city's historic cen...

The health and well-being benefits of access to green space are well documented. Research suggests positive findings regardless of social group, however barriers exist that limit access to green space, including proximity, geography and differing social conditions. Current public health policy aims to broaden the range of environmental public health interventions through effective partnership w...