Health Impact Assessment in the United States: Has Practice Followed Standards?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bhatia R ; Corburn J ; Schuchter J ; Seto E ; Bhatia R ; Corburn J ; Schuchter J ; Seto E
• Description:
  As an emerging practice, Health Impact Assessment is heterogeneous in purpose, form, and scope and applied in a wide range of decision contexts. This heterogeneity challenges efforts to evaluate the quality and impact of practice. We examined whether information in completed HIA reports reflected objectively-evaluable criteria proposed by the North American HIA Practice Standards Working Group in 2009. From publically-available reports of HIAs conducted in the U.S. and published from 2009 to 2011, we excluded those that were components of, or comment letters on, Environmental Impact Assessments (5) or were demonstration projects or student exercises (8). For the remaining 23 reports, we used practice standards as a template to abstract data on the steps of HIA, including details on the rationale, authorship, funding, decision and decision-makers, participation, pathways and methods, quality of evidence, and recommendations. Most reports described screening, scoping, and assessment processes, but there was substantial variation in the extent of these processes and the degree of stakeholder participation. Community stakeholders participated in screening or scoping in just two-thirds of the HIAs (16). On average, these HIAs analyzed 5.5 determinants related to 10.6 health impacts. Most HIA reports did not include evaluation or monitoring plans. This study identifies issues for field development and improvement. The standards might be adapted to better account for variability in resources, produce fit-for-purpose HIAs, and facilitate innovation guided by the principles. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Community Health Services Health Promotion Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Health Impact Assessment Community Health Environmental Impacts Evaluation Health Communications HIA Principles Practice Standards Standards
• ISSN:
  0195-9255
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article ; Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  47-53
• Volume:
  47
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054743
• Citation:
  Environ Impact Assess Rev 2014 Jul; 47:47-53
• Contact Point Address:
  Joseph Schuchter, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, 50 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, United States
• Email:
  jws@berkeley.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Impact Assessment Review
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a5216f2ab7794c03f1167f0e7065b5c699ee4d5e5267c0b8a124bb1d1256705ceaabcf686df38b9395c6f20b4eca4347c07b8da37ae6375dee42ab2452e587a0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/217179/cdc_217179_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 352.49 KB ]