Health Impact Assessment

Citation

(2005), "Health Impact Assessment", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2005.06218EAE.001

Health Impact Assessment

Please note that unless expressly stated, these are not reviews of the titles given. They are descriptions of the books, based on information provided by the publishers.

Health Impact Assessment

Edited by John Kemm, Jayne Parry and Stephen PalmerOxford University Press2004450pp.ISBN 0-19-852629-6

Keywords: Health services, Public health, Assessment

Health effects are often overlooked when planning development projects ranging from new runways at major airport sites to developing water supply systems to improve sanitation. Health impact assessment (HIA) is the assessment of the health effects, positive or negative, of a project, programme, or policy. It is therefore concerned with the health of populations and attempts to predict the future consequences for health of decisions which have not yet been implemented. HIA is a new and growing field, with numerous schools of thought and areas of controversy.

This book is the first to give a comprehensive overview of the concepts, theory, techniques and applications of HIA to aid all those preparing projects or carrying out assessments. It draws on examples and thinking from many different disciplines and many parts of the world. It identifies the areas of agreement and the questions remaining unanswered. It maps a confused field and signposts possible directions for future progress.

HIA is intended to help decision makers in all areas foresee the consequences of their decisions, to ensure the consequences are considered and reduce the risk of population health being damaged through some indirect and unintended consequence of a decision.

This book is a practical handbook for those preparing the assessments be they epidemiologists, environmentalists, health economists or public health specialists, as well as serving as a conceptual guide for policy makers, decision makers and planners at national and international level. This book will serve both as a reference for the established HIA practitioner and as an introduction for the novice.

Contents include:

• •

  What is HIA?

• •

  Development of HIA.

• •

  Health inequalities and HIA.

• •

  Quantitative approaches.

• •

  Planning an HIA.

• •

  Practitioners view of HIA.

• •

  Rapid appraisals and HIS.

• •

  Future directions for HIA.

The publication also includes and widely covers national and international case examples.