ReviewPreventing chronic disease2016
Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessments: A Synthesis of Data From Five Impact Evaluation Reports.
Review in Preventing chronic disease, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evidence for the effectiveness of health impact assessment in spatial planning on health outcomes: A systematic review and stakeholder involvement from a UK perspective.Public health · 2025Pooled it
- Health Impact Assessments of Health Sector Proposals: An Audit and Narrative Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Safer inhalation devices: a rapid Health Impact Assessment of a harm reduction pilot for people who smoke crack cocaine.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Participatory Health Impact Assessment for Health and Well-Being Policy at Local Level in Thailand.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- Exploring factors influencing health impact assessment policy identification in China: a comparative study of health and nonhealth sectors.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Global priorities in HIA research: a new agenda for the next decade.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A New Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Health Impact Assessment: Capitalising on a French Case Study with the Literature in Evaluation.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Built Environment and Public Health: More Than 20 Years of Progress.American journal of public health · 2024Article
- Implementation of Health Impact Assessment in the Healthcare System of the Republic of Kazakhstan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Evaluating Racial/Ethnic Equity in Planning-Related U.S. Health Impact Assessments Involving Parks and Greenspaces: A Review.Journal of the American Planning Association. American Planning Association · 2023Article
- Health Impact Assessment: A Missed Opportunity for MCH Professionals in Their Quest to Address the Social Determinants of Health.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Review
- Professional workforce training needs for Health Impact Assessment in spatial planning: A cross sectional survey.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- The Built Environment and Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a Review on Quantitative Health Impact Assessments.Current environmental health reports · 2022Review
- Environmental Impact Assessment, Human Health and the Sustainable Development Goals.International journal of public health · 2022Article
- Use of health impact assessments in the housing sector to promote health in the United States, 2002-2016.Journal of housing and the built environment : HBE · 2021Article
- Using health impact assessment (HIA) to understand the wider health and well-being implications of policy decisions: the COVID-19 'staying at home and social distancing policy' in Wales.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Relationship-building around a policy decision-support tool for urban health.Buildings & cities · 2021Article
- Process, Practice and Progress: A Case Study of the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of Brexit in Wales.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- A Comparative Analysis of Health Impact Assessment Implementation Models in the Regions of Montérégie (Québec, Canada) and Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionSince the 1990s, the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) has grown for considering the potential health impacts of proposed policies, plans, programs, and projects in various sectors. Evaluation of HIA impacts is needed for understanding the value of HIAs, improving the methods involved in HIAs, and potentially expanding their application. Impact evaluations examine whether HIAs affect decisions and lead to other effects.
methodsI reviewed HIA impact evaluations identified by literature review and professional networking. I abstracted and synthesized data on key findings, success factors, and challenges from 5 large evaluations conducted in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand and published from 2006 through 2015. These studies analyzed impacts of approximately 200 individual HIAs.
resultsMajor impacts of HIAs were directly influencing some decisions, improving collaboration among stakeholders, increasing awareness of health issues among decision makers, and giving community members a stronger voice in local decisions. Factors that contributed to successful HIAs included engaging stakeholders, timeliness, policy and systems support for conducting HIAs, having people with appropriate skills on the HIA team, obtaining the support of decision makers, and providing clearly articulated, feasible recommendations. Challenges that may have reduced HIA success were poor timeliness, underestimation of time and resources needed, difficulty in accessing relevant data, use of jargon in HIA reports, difficulty in involving decision makers in the HIA process, and absence of a requirement to conduct HIAs.
conclusionHIAs can be useful to promote health and mitigate adverse impacts of decisions made outside of the health sector. Stakeholder interactions and community engagement may be as important as direct impacts of HIAs. Multiple factors are required for HIA success. Further work could strengthen the role of HIAs in promoting equity, examine HIA impacts in specific sectors, and document the role of HIAs in a "health in all policies" approach.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.