Equity focused health impact assessment: social determinants of health

Abstract

Addressing health disparities during planning and delivery of services in health care requires an understanding of the health requirements of the disadvantaged population as well as key barriers to equitable quality care. To gain knowledge in social determinant of health it is important to have effective planning tools. Over the past two decades there has been continuous use of health impact assessment (HIA) to assess the health impacts of proposals, programs, policies, projects and even plans. The major problem affecting the implementation of HIA is the identification of the health issues in a policy since it depends on the judgment and the interpretation of the policy aspects by policy makers. The equity focused HIA has an opportunity to make important contributions to policy making processes. The main purpose of EFHIA (Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment) is to ensure that policies, plans, and programs being developed or proposed have observed health equity in order to promote social health.