An introduction to health impact assessment

Sarah Simpson

Abstract

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a structured and stepwise process for identifying the potential beneficial and harmful health impacts of a policy, program, development or project proposal before its implementation, with the purpose of using this information to improve the proposal. A widely used and accepted definition of HIA is: A combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be assessed for its potential, and often unanticipated, effects on the health of the population and the distribution of these impacts within the population.

New South Wales Public Health Bulletin 16(8) 106 - 107 (2005) doi:10.1071/NB05025