Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr 16:45:1606649.
doi: 10.3389/phrs.2024.1606649. eCollection 2024.

Prospects and Perspectives of Health Impact Assessment: A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature From June 2007 to January 2023

Nina Lamprecht  1   2   3 , Tobias E Erlanger  1   3 , Jürg Utzinger  1   3 , Mirko S Winkler  1   3
Affiliations

Prospects and Perspectives of Health Impact Assessment: A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature From June 2007 to January 2023

Nina Lamprecht et al. Public Health Rev. .

Abstract

Objectives: In 2008, an analysis investigating health impact assessment (HIA) practice found that only 6% of HIA-related peer-reviewed publications had a focus on low- and medium-developed countries, whereas 94% were conducted in countries with a high or very high development state. We aimed to update and deepen these observations.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review, searching PubMed and Web of Science for HIA-related papers published in the scientific literature from June 2007 to January 2023. Only applied HIA and papers with HIA as a subject were included.

Results: The search yielded 3,036 publications and the final selection consisted of 1,019 publications. The annual number of total publications increased considerably over the past 15 years. Whereas research-driven HIA (n = 460) showed a steep increase, step-by-step HIA (n = 71) did not show a clear trend.

Conclusion: The gap between the number of HIA-related peer-reviewed publications focusing on low/medium and high/very high developed countries has diminished from 6/94 to 11/89. There is a growing tendency to apply the terminology HIA for health impact modelling studies and quantitative health risk assessments.

Keywords: health impact assessment; health inequity; research-driven HIA; step-by-step HIA; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

TE is currently employed by the Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AG, Messeplatz 10, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland. The remaining authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
PRISMA flow chart showing the details of the screening process (systematic review, global, 2007–2023).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Numbers of health impact assessment (HIA)-related publications per focus country identified (systematic review, global, 2007–2023).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Numbers of health impact assessment (HIA)-related publications identified, stratified by study type (systematic review, global, 2007–2023). Note: studies were categorized by the Human Development Index (HDI) of their focus countries. Papers with multiple focus countries or with a general focus are labelled as “unclassifiable”.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Number of health impact assessment (HIA)-related publications identified, categorized by the Human Development Index (HDI) of their focus countries (systematic review, global, 2008–2023). Note: papers with multiple focus countries or with a general focus were labelled as “unclassifiable”.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Number of health impact assessment (HIA)-related publications identified, stratified by study type (systematic review, global, 2008–2023).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Winkler MS, Viliani F, Knoblauch AM, Cave B, Divall M, Ramesh G, et al. Health Impact Assessment, International Best Practice Principles. Int Assoc Impact Assess (2021) 2021(5):551–5.
    1. Thondoo M, Rojas-Rueda D, Gupta J, De Vries DH, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ. Systematic Literature Review of Health Impact Assessments in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2019) 16(11):2018. 10.3390/ijerph16112018 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Winkler MS, Furu P, Viliani F, Cave B, Divall M, Ramesh G, et al. Current Global Health Impact Assessment Practice. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2020) 17(9):2988. 10.3390/ijerph17092988 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Thondoo M, Gupta J. Health Impact Assessment Legislation in Developing Countries: A Path to Sustainable Development? Rev Eur Comp Int Environ L (2021) 30(1):107–17. 10.1111/reel.12347 - DOI
    1. Cave B, Claßen T, Fischer-Bonde B, Humboldt-Dachroeden S, Martín-Olmedo P, Mekel O, et al. Human Health: Ensuring a High Level of Protection. A Reference Paper on Addressing Human Health in Environmental Impact Assessment (2020). Available from: https://eupha.org/repository/sections/HIA/Human%20Health%20Ensuring%20Pr... (Accessed April 6, 2024).

Publication types