Using Evidence to Bring Health and Equity into Decision-Making: A Health Impact Assessment to Inform Public Housing Redevelopment

Debarati Majumdar Narayan (Health Impact Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts)

An essential step of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is to provide decision- makers with evidence-based, impartially informed recommendations that maximize the potential for a project, plan or policy to have positive health outcomes for the community affected by the proposed decision. Using a rigorous and transparent process, HIAs use a range of qualitative and quantitative data to systematically characterize the potential impacts of the proposed decision, having considered baseline health conditions of the community. To ensure democracy, a key value of HIA practice, stakeholders who may be affected by the proposed project, plan or policy, are typically engaged throughout the HIA process, including data collection and analysis. Specifically, HIA practitioners seek to engage under-resourced or high-risk groups who may be disproportionately impacted by the project, plan or policy, to ensure recommendations support health equity. This presentation will explore how evidence is used to inform baseline health conditions of a community, characterize impacts, and develop recommendations, and how stakeholders can be engaged throughout these processes, using the example of a public housing redevelopment HIA.