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Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?

Background: Health impact assessment (HIA) has scarcely been developed in Spain, in comparison with other European countries. Moreover, little is known about the effectiveness of HIA, taking into account direct impacts—changes on the decision-making process—as well as indirect impacts or those relat...

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Autores principales: Morteruel, Maite, Bacigalupe, Amaia, Aldasoro, Elena, Larrañaga, Isabel, Serrano, Elena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7216190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32344776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082959
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author Morteruel, Maite
Bacigalupe, Amaia
Aldasoro, Elena
Larrañaga, Isabel
Serrano, Elena
author_facet Morteruel, Maite
Bacigalupe, Amaia
Aldasoro, Elena
Larrañaga, Isabel
Serrano, Elena
author_sort Morteruel, Maite
collection PubMed
description Background: Health impact assessment (HIA) has scarcely been developed in Spain, in comparison with other European countries. Moreover, little is known about the effectiveness of HIA, taking into account direct impacts—changes on the decision-making process—as well as indirect impacts or those related to the process outcomes. From this broad perspective of HIA usefulness, the purpose was to assess the effectiveness of five HIAs carried out in Spain at the local level, and the role played by context and process factors on these impacts. Methods: We carried out a qualitative study based on 14 interviews to HIAs participants from different sectors. A documentary review and nonparticipant observation techniques were implemented for an in depth understanding. Results: The direct effectiveness of the HIAs was partial, but they had indirect effectiveness in all cases. The institutional and socio-political context, however, was not favorable to effectiveness. The elements of the process were largely determined by the context, although their influence, mediated by the role of proactive individuals, favored the effectiveness of the HIAs. Conclusions: When assessing HIA effectiveness, it is important to take into account a broad perspective on the nature of impacts and those factors influencing direct and indirect effectiveness. In Spain, the institutional and sociopolitical context was less favorable to HIA effectiveness than process-related factors. In order to implement the Health in All Policies strategy, will be necessary to improve context-related factors, such as institutional facilitators for HIA and democratic quality.
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spelling pubmed-72161902020-05-22 Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective? Morteruel, Maite Bacigalupe, Amaia Aldasoro, Elena Larrañaga, Isabel Serrano, Elena Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Health impact assessment (HIA) has scarcely been developed in Spain, in comparison with other European countries. Moreover, little is known about the effectiveness of HIA, taking into account direct impacts—changes on the decision-making process—as well as indirect impacts or those related to the process outcomes. From this broad perspective of HIA usefulness, the purpose was to assess the effectiveness of five HIAs carried out in Spain at the local level, and the role played by context and process factors on these impacts. Methods: We carried out a qualitative study based on 14 interviews to HIAs participants from different sectors. A documentary review and nonparticipant observation techniques were implemented for an in depth understanding. Results: The direct effectiveness of the HIAs was partial, but they had indirect effectiveness in all cases. The institutional and socio-political context, however, was not favorable to effectiveness. The elements of the process were largely determined by the context, although their influence, mediated by the role of proactive individuals, favored the effectiveness of the HIAs. Conclusions: When assessing HIA effectiveness, it is important to take into account a broad perspective on the nature of impacts and those factors influencing direct and indirect effectiveness. In Spain, the institutional and sociopolitical context was less favorable to HIA effectiveness than process-related factors. In order to implement the Health in All Policies strategy, will be necessary to improve context-related factors, such as institutional facilitators for HIA and democratic quality. MDPI 2020-04-24 2020-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7216190/ /pubmed/32344776 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082959 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Morteruel, Maite
Bacigalupe, Amaia
Aldasoro, Elena
Larrañaga, Isabel
Serrano, Elena
Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title_full Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title_fullStr Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title_full_unstemmed Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title_short Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?
title_sort health impact assessments in spain: have they been effective?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7216190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32344776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082959
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