What is Health Impact Assessment (HIA)?
What is Health Impact Assessment (HIA)?
An HIA assess the impact of a planned change on the health of the community before it happens. For example, it can predict the health impact of a planned road for neighborhood residents.
To assess the impact of a proposed policy, plan, program, or project, HIAs use a variety of data sources and input from area residents, businesses, and community leaders (stakeholders). HIAs also provide recommendations on how to monitor and manage health effects that could occur.
HIAs can take on many forms, but the best ones happen during the decision-making process, where the decision-makers and the stakeholders that will be impacted by a decision are both involved in the HIA process.
HIA is a tool used to make sure that health is considered in all policies, projects, plans, or key decisions within our community. It also promotes better options for healthier choices for communities with fewer resources and higher rates of disease (health equity).