A Supportive Tool for Urban Health: Health Impact Assessment at the Local Level

Introduction: The Interdepartamental Public Health Plan of Catalonia (2014) seeks to enforce Health in All Policies (HiAP) at the regional and local levels. Within this context, the City Council of Sant Andreu de la Barca (SAB), the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB), and the Public Health Agency of Catalonia started a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of an urbanistic redesign of the Llobregat fluvial area in SAB, the results of which are presented in this paper. Methodology: In 2018, after a HIA screening, a prospective nonquantitative HIA was conducted. Politicians, professionals, and citizens participated in identifying potential impacts. Impacts were prioritized and linked to health determinants, scientific evidence, and potentially affected social groups. Afterwards, recommendations were formulated in order to improve the health impacts of the project. Finally, indicators were selected to evaluate HIA implementation. Results: The HIA was successfully implemented with the participation of technicians and citizens of SAB. The health impacts identified were mainly related to environmental, public safety, lifestyle, socioeconomic, and political contexts. Ten recommendations were defined to minimize the potential negative health impacts of the project, with six of them directly included and only one dismissed due to incompatibility. Conclusion: A HIA was successfully carried out in the medium-sized town of Catalonia, promoting Health in all Policies at a local level and improving health impacts of an urbanistic project.

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Evaluation of the Health impact assessment (HIA) deployment process in a French region

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.299 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽

Author(s):

F Jabot ◽

J Romagon ◽

G Dardier

Keyword(s):

Impact Assessment ◽

Success Factors ◽

Health Impact Assessment ◽

Local Level ◽

Health Agency ◽

Health Impact ◽

Evaluation Framework ◽

Added Value ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Potential Health

Abstract Background Health impact assessment is a method aimed at identifying the potential health impacts of policies and projects before their implementation and suggesting proposals in order to mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive ones. HIA is growing in France mainly at the local level. The Pays de la Loire Regional Health Agency (PDL-HRA) took an early interest in HIA and supported three experiments proposed by the town councils. An assessment was performed to judge its added value, identify success factors and draw lessons for the development of the practice. Methods An evaluation framework was built based on standards and literature. Using a qualitative multiple case study design, a cross-sectional analysis of the HIAs was carried out in order to compare the implementation process in their respective contexts, the governance arrangements and the changes introduced as a result of the HIA. Evaluation draws upon HIA reports, workshops, field observation and 40 interviews that were analysed with NVivo. Results While the conduct of HIAs is generally in line with standards of practice, the analysis of the relevance of HIA and impact characterization remain insufficiently documented. Implementation and success factors depend on the political context, the culture of institutions, actors and the purpose of HIA. Recommendations have been taken into account and changes are emerging. The stakeholders indicate their interest in HIA insofar as it is a meeting point between the concerns of institutions regarding health equity and democracy and it provides tools for action. Conclusions Although the approach is unanimously valued, it faces time, resource and competition with other activities. The continuation of the approach depends on the HRA policy specifying the aims, resources, fields of application and positioning with regard to the partners.These findings are consistent with other French work and literature data. French experience coulfd benefit from that of other countries. Key messages Skills of professionals have to be reinforced in order to make appropriate and quality HIAs. Evaluation is useful for understanding the development of an emerging practice and for supporting a decision-making in terms of scaling up, integration, role assigned to the health sector.

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