Forsyth A, Slotterback CS, Krizek KJ. Health impact assessment in planning: development of the design for health HIA tools. Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 2010; 30: 42-51.
Summary: This article details how public health practitioners have been the main proponents and developers of HIA but more planners are discovering the need for quick, policy- relevant HIAs. Rapid Assessments, better established in Europe, might serve the planning community as they learn these evolving tools. Planners use existing models to guide the development of their own specific HIA and although they agree that the larger social determinants of health are often more important their tools focus on areas where they can have an influence. Validity and reliability are often a concern as new tools emerge.
General Concensus: Most students felt it was helpful to read an article written by and for planners. Most of the information in this article was new to students as was the variety and styles of HIAs.
Additional Comments:
"It was nice to read a planner's vision for HAI, but it was hard for me to follow all of the details in this framework." (HSERV)
"Threshold analysis seems easily applicable to any cases but the one challenge that I can think of could be how we set the threshold for each criterion and how we weigh different criteria." (UDPL)
"The references in the article also provide a valuable list of other HIA guidance, which are of use to practitioners and academics." (UDPL)