Health Impact Project

A New Model Curriculum for Teaching Health Impact Assessment

As more communities leverage the power of health impact assessments (HIAs) to identify the potential health outcomes of policy and planning decisions, demand is growing for high-quality instruction and courses on how to conduct HIAs. In this paper, the Health Impact Project’s interim director, Keshia Pollack, and co-authors Andrew Dannenberg, Nisha Botchwey, Cynthia Stone, and Edmund Seto—instructors of graduate-level courses in the United States that focus explicitly on HIAs—outline a model curriculum for teaching HIA based on a framework for experiential learning. This model curriculum may help other graduate institutions develop their own HIA courses and inform public health and community design professionals interested in expanding the use of HIAs across the country.

In the November issue of the journal Health Affairs, Bethany Rogerson, Aaron Wernham, Ruth Lindberg, and Marjory Givens outline how connecting the work of community developers and public health professionals can help improve quality of life in low-income communities.

Community development and public health initiatives share a goal of supporting underserved communities. Recognition is growing that investments made by community developers can ultimately improve community health by increasing access to affordable housing and public transit, child care and education, jobs and economic opportunity. To date, however, few developers have specifically analyzed how their projects could affect health and well-being. In this article, the authors outline a straightforward framework—based on a review of health impact assessments—for incorporating health into community development work through four activities: identifying the health needs and status of the community served, considering neighborhood features that influence health, implementing building design features that support health, and engaging the community to build capacity for responding to health concerns.

Equity-Focused Health Impact Assessment: A tool to assist policy makers in addressing health inequalities, 2005

Simpson S, Mahoney M, Harris E, Aldrich R, Stewart Williams J. Equity-Focused Health Impact Assessment: A tool to assist policy makers in addressing health inequalities. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 2005; 25(7-8):799-807.

Good Practice Guidance on Health Impact Assessment (PDF)

Author: International Council of Mining and Metals

Guidance & Best Practices for Stakeholder Participation in Health Impact Assessments (PDF)

Author: Stakeholder Participation Working Group of the 2010 HIA of the Americas Workshop

Health Impact Assesessment: A Practical Guide, 2007 (PDF)

Harris, P., Harris-Roxas, B., Harris, E., & Kemp, L. Health Impact Assessment: A Practical Guide, Sydney: Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE). Part of the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, UNSW.

Health Impact Assessment: A Guide for Practice (PDF)

Author: Rajiv Bhatia

Health, Equity and Transportation Online Toolkit

Author: American Public Health Association

Healthy Development Measurement Tool

Created by San Francisco Department of Public Health, Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability

Healthy People 2020

Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For 3 decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to:

• Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors. 
• Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions. 
• Measure the impact of prevention activities.

HIA Report Guide, December 2010 (PDF)

Author: Human Impact Partners for Health Impact Project Grantees

Human Impact Partners, Tools and Resources

This site provides a wide range of resources: HIA guides and steps, training materials, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, framing, and others.

Ingham County HIA Tool (PDF)

The Ingham County Health Department developed and implemented a checklist-based HIA tool to evaluate proposed development projects.

Methodologies for Realizing the Potential of Health Impact Assessment, 2005

Cole BL, Shimkhada R, Fielding J, et al. Methodologies for Realizing the Potential of Health Impact Assessment. Am J Prev Med 2005;28(4):382–389.

Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment (Version 2), November 2010 (PDF)

Author: North American HIA Practice Standards Working Group

Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment (Version 1), 2009 (PDF)

Bhatia R, Farhang L, Gaydos M, et al. Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment (Version 1). Oakland CA: North American HIA Practice Standards Working Group, 2009.

State of Alaska Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Program and Toolkit

The Alaska HIA Program evaluates the potential human health effects of new policies, programs or development projects in Alaska.

The Merseyside Guidelines for HIA, 2001

Author: International Health Impact Assessment Consortium

U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration Transportation and Health Tool

An online tool, to help transportation decision makers see how their community compares in terms of key health and transportation indicators