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Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment (2011)

Chapter: Appendix C: Statement of Task of the Committee on Health Impact Assessment

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Statement of Task of the Committee on Health Impact Assessment." National Research Council. 2011. Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13229.
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Appendix C

Statement of Task of the Committee on Health Impact Assessment

An NRC/IOM committee will develop a framework, terminology, and guidance for conducting health impact assessment (HIA) of proposed policies, programs, and projects (for example, transportation, land use, housing, agriculture) at federal, state, tribal, and local levels, including the private sector. The committee will assess the value and potential value of such assessments; the impediments and countervailing factors that have limited the practice of HIA to date; the circumstances and criteria for conducting them; the concepts, tools, and information required; and the types, structure, and content of HIAs. Based on these considerations, the committee will develop a systematic, conceptual framework and approach for improving the assessment of health impacts in the United States.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Statement of Task of the Committee on Health Impact Assessment." National Research Council. 2011. Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13229.
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Factoring health and related costs into decision making is essential to confronting the nation's health problems and enhancing public well-being. Some policies and programs historically not recognized as relating to health are believed or known to have important health consequences. For example, public health has been linked to an array of policies that determine the quality and location of housing, availability of public transportation, land use and street connectivity, agricultural practices and the availability of various types of food, and development and location of businesses and industry.

Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment offers guidance to officials in the public and private sectors on conducting HIAs to evaluate public health consequences of proposed decisions—such as those to build a major roadway, plan a city's growth, or develop national agricultural policies—and suggests actions that could minimize adverse health impacts and optimize beneficial ones.

Several approaches could be used to incorporate aspects of health into decision making, but HIA holds particular promise because of its applicability to a broad array of programs, consideration of both adverse and beneficial health effects, ability to consider and incorporate various types of evidence, and engagement of communities and stakeholders in a deliberative process. The report notes that HIA should not be assumed to be the best approach to every health policy question but rather should be seen as part of a spectrum of public health and policy-oriented approaches.

The report presents a six-step framework for conducting HIA of proposed policies, programs, plans, and projects at federal, state, tribal, and local levels, including within the private sector. In addition, the report identifies several challenges to the successful use of HIA, such as balancing the need to provide timely information with the realities of varying data quality, producing quantitative estimates of health effects, and engaging stakeholders.

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