About HIA

HIA is a multidisciplinary process which is based on the idea that people's health is not only influenced by the health services they have access to, and by their own behaviours, but is also influenced by a range of factors outside of their control. These are called the determinants of health. As a multidisciplinary process, HIA uses a combination of procedures, methods and tools to assess and judge a policy, program or project for its potential, and often unanticipated, effects on the health of the population and distribution of those effects within it¹.

The development of policies, programs and projects across all levels of government occurs in complex political and administrative environments. The intention of people using HIA is for it to aid the decision-making process and ensure health is considered in planning where it currently is not. It is not intended that considerations of health take primacy over necessary economic, environmental and social considerations. Rather, the intention when using HIA is to enrich the planning and development process by adding evidence of the likely health impacts of one decision over another.

HIA can also assist in building partnerships across diverse sectors and thus formally support and enable opportunities for integrated planning. Establishing priorities for action and making explicit the trade-offs inherent within the decision-making process, where necessary, based on an enhanced evidence base of the likely implications for health is also possible through the use of HIA.

Reference

¹ Lehto J, Ritsatakis A. Health impact assessment as a tool for intersectoral health policy. A discussion paper for a seminar on 'health impact assessment: from theory to practice'. Gothenburg: ECHP, WHO; 1999