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Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran

BACKGROUND: Health impact assessments (HIA) of policies and projects are conducted differently in different contexts although there has been less HIA research to date in non-western countries. Global HIA research has however suggested that the technical conduct of HIAs is tied to broader conditions...

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Autores principales: Fakhri, Ali, Harris, Patrick, Maleki, Mohammadreza
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4407536/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1698-1
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author Fakhri, Ali
Harris, Patrick
Maleki, Mohammadreza
author_facet Fakhri, Ali
Harris, Patrick
Maleki, Mohammadreza
author_sort Fakhri, Ali
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Health impact assessments (HIA) of policies and projects are conducted differently in different contexts although there has been less HIA research to date in non-western countries. Global HIA research has however suggested that the technical conduct of HIAs is tied to broader conditions and influences to do with decision making and policy development. This study was conducted to develop a conceptual framework for progressing HIA in Iran including all factors influencing HIA planning and practice. METHODS: A comprehensive review of the international HIA literature identified core characteristics and principles. Then key informant interviews (n = 14) identified Iranian perspectives about factors influencing HIAs practice. These two stages resulted in a conceptual framework for HIA planning and practice including influencing factors and HIA content that was confirmed by our participants using e-Delphi technique. RESULTS: 91 HIA characteristics were organized into 20 categories. The interviews showed that four core concepts i.e. context, actors, HIA principles and policies and HIA capacities influence HIA practice in Iran. Comprehensive content of HIA considering all health dimensions and health determinants, assessing health inequalities, appropriate HIA type, quantification and participation is formed under influence of the above mentioned four factors. The study also demonstrated need to redefine the HIA principles and make decision about integration of HIA in Environmental Impact Assessment and also about the level of HIA before implementing HIA. The e-Delphi resulted in expert consensus on the variables, concepts, and their relations in proposed framework. CONCLUSIONS: Progressing HIA practice in Iran is perceived locally as subject to similar contextual conditions to those identified in the international literature. Further we have demonstrated the utility of mixed methods to progress HIA implementation in differing country contexts.
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spelling pubmed-44075362015-04-24 Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran Fakhri, Ali Harris, Patrick Maleki, Mohammadreza BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Health impact assessments (HIA) of policies and projects are conducted differently in different contexts although there has been less HIA research to date in non-western countries. Global HIA research has however suggested that the technical conduct of HIAs is tied to broader conditions and influences to do with decision making and policy development. This study was conducted to develop a conceptual framework for progressing HIA in Iran including all factors influencing HIA planning and practice. METHODS: A comprehensive review of the international HIA literature identified core characteristics and principles. Then key informant interviews (n = 14) identified Iranian perspectives about factors influencing HIAs practice. These two stages resulted in a conceptual framework for HIA planning and practice including influencing factors and HIA content that was confirmed by our participants using e-Delphi technique. RESULTS: 91 HIA characteristics were organized into 20 categories. The interviews showed that four core concepts i.e. context, actors, HIA principles and policies and HIA capacities influence HIA practice in Iran. Comprehensive content of HIA considering all health dimensions and health determinants, assessing health inequalities, appropriate HIA type, quantification and participation is formed under influence of the above mentioned four factors. The study also demonstrated need to redefine the HIA principles and make decision about integration of HIA in Environmental Impact Assessment and also about the level of HIA before implementing HIA. The e-Delphi resulted in expert consensus on the variables, concepts, and their relations in proposed framework. CONCLUSIONS: Progressing HIA practice in Iran is perceived locally as subject to similar contextual conditions to those identified in the international literature. Further we have demonstrated the utility of mixed methods to progress HIA implementation in differing country contexts. BioMed Central 2015-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4407536/ /pubmed/25879188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1698-1 Text en © Fakhri et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Fakhri, Ali
Harris, Patrick
Maleki, Mohammadreza
Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title_full Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title_fullStr Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title_full_unstemmed Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title_short Proposing a framework for Health Impact Assessment in Iran
title_sort proposing a framework for health impact assessment in iran
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4407536/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1698-1
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