title: Development of an Urban Health Impact Assessment methodology: indicating the health equity impacts of urban policies.
abstract: An overarching recommendation of the global Commission on Social Determinants of Health was to measure and understand health inequalities and assess the impact of action. In a rapidly urbanising world, now is the time for Urban HIA. This article describes the development of robust and easy-to-use HIA tools to identify and address health inequalities from new urban policies. Rapid reviews and consultation with experts identified existing HIA screening tools and methodologies which were then analyzed against predefined selection criteria. A draft Urban HIA Screening Tool (UrHIST) and Urban HIA methodology (UrHIA) were synthesised. The draft tools were tested and refined using a modified Delphi approach that included input from urban and public health experts, practitioners and policy makers. The outputs were two easy-to-use stand-alone urban HIA tools. The reviews and consultations identified an underpinning conceptual framework. The screening tool is used to determine whether a full HIA is required, or for a brief assessment. Urban health indicators are a readily available and efficient means of identifying variations in the health of populations potentially affected by policies. Indicators are, however, currently underutilised in HIA practice. This may limit the identification of health inequalities by HIA and production of recommendations. The new tools utilise health indicator data more fully. UrHIA also incorporates a hierarchy of evidence for use during impact analysis. The new urban HIA tools have the potential to enhance the rigour of HIAs and improve the identification and amelioration of health inequalities generated by urban policies.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health and Policy, Institute of Psychology Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pennington
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health and Policy, Institute of Psychology Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK.
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dreaves
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health and Policy, Institute of Psychology Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scott-Samuel
authors.affiliation: 2 Centre for Health Equity Training Research & Evaluation, Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, University of New South Wales, A Member of the Ingham Institute, Liverpool, NSW, NSW 1871, Australia.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Haigh
authors.affiliation: 3 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: 3 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Arpana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health and Policy, Institute of Psychology Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pope
mesh_terms: D062489:Health Impact Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006291:Health Policy; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration