









































November 2018 Volume  3 Issue 2

HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT: AN INFORMATION NEEDS 
ANALYSIS OF HIA PRACTITIONERS ACROSS SECTORS

Wes Quattrone, MA; Melissa Callahan, MSPH; Stephen Brown, MS; Tatiana Lin, MA; Jamie Pina, PhD, MSPH

Abstract: 

Background: Information contained in health impact assessments (HIAs) provides valuable guidance for 
professionals in many fields and industries, also known as sectors. However, a growing body of evidence suggests 
that HIA practitioners across sectors have unmet information needs and face challenges accessing health related 
data, including findings available in HIAs.  

Methods: The research team conducted a series of focus groups to explore the information needs of practitioners 
across sectors and to identify challenges they face accessing this information. Participants were stratified by 
geographic location, sector affiliation, and HIA expertise.  

Results: Findings suggest that practitioners from all sectors can benefit from the integration of health-related 
information, and the information contained in HIAs, into their work. Reported information needs include baseline 
data, geocoded socio-demographic information, granular local data, peer reviewed literature on the impacts 
of social determinants and other factors with health outcomes, and technical assistance and best practices. 
Participants indicated that they obtain information from their professional network, universities sponsoring 
research, and online resources. Information challenges include lack of data that match the size and the scope 
of the target area of interest, proprietary or pay-for-access sources, varying terminology for the same concepts 
across sectors, inadequate resources and HIA expertise for searching, and limited information on the impact of 
findings of completed HIAs. 

Discussion: Identifying and understanding the information needs of practitioners is essential to maximizing the 
use of existing and future HIAs. An interactive and comprehensive web-based repository system for HIAs may 
provide value and assist practitioners in meeting these needs. 

1



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

2

Introduction

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a process that 
determines the potential health effects of a proposed 
plan, project, or policy before it is created or executed. 
HIA brings public health impacts and considerations to 
the forefront of the decision-making process in fields 
that typically fall outside traditional public health 
arenas. It emphasizes strategies to enhance health 
benefits while reducing negative effects, and it weighs 
the strengths and weaknesses of different options 
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 
2018; Pew Charitable Trusts, 2018a). 

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the 
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew 
Charitable Trusts, contracted with RTI International 
to conduct a qualitative study of new and current HIA 
practitioners to explore their information needs, how 
they seek out that information, and challenges they 
face with accessing the information included in HIAs. 
Study participants included a range of professionals, 
from those who had limited exposure to HIAs, to those 
who routinely conducted HIAs. These professionals 
used HIAs for various reasons, such as to locate 
research and data, complete projects, inform policies, 
and influence decision makers.  

This article outlines the findings from the study and 
describes the information needs and challenges 
identified by focus group participants. The article 
also describes the information that  HIA practitioners 
require to meaningfully incorporate population 
health and health equity considerations into their 
work. The research team assessed how often 
practitioners use HIAs to influence policy, programs, 
practice, planning, and decision-making. Participants 
provided recommendations for maximizing access to 
information included in HIAs, including summaries 
of findings in peer-reviewed literature, outcome and 
impact assessments, and more comprehensive web 
solutions.  

Background
 
Since the first HIA was conducted in the United States 
in 1999 (Bhatia & Katz, 2001), the adoption of HIAs has 
steadily increased. In 2008, 27 HIAs were completed 
(Dannenberg et al., 2008), and more than 400 HIAs are 
completed or in progress today (Pew Charitable Trusts, 
2018b). The Health Impact Project contributed to the 
growth of HIAs and has supported the field by funding 
HIA demonstration projects, trainings, and evaluations, 
and by “serving as a convener for the field” (Morley, 
Lindberg, Rogerson, Bever, & Pollack, 2016).  

HIAs have gained popularity as a means for public 
health professionals to demonstrate to colleagues 
in sectors that traditionally do not focus on health, 
the impact of decisions made in other sectors on 
population and community health (Dannenberg, 
2016a). They also help professionals in positions and 
sectors outside of the health arena make informed 
decisions that affect public health (Morley et al., 
2016) and advocate for health-related policy changes 
such as active transformation promotion (Waheed et 
al., 2018), emission reduction (Likhvar et al., 2015), 
and green space infrastructure (Fischer et al., 2018). 
In non-health sectors, professionals must consider 
several factors when planning their work, such as 
available resources, stakeholder support, access to 
relevant data, and others (Bourcier, Charbonneau, 
Cahill, & Dannenberg, 2015). HIAs have been shown 
to assist decision makers in quantifying the impact of 
population and community health issues, which they 
can then communicate to other stakeholders (National 
Research Council, 2011).

Despite these advances in the field of HIAs, there 
is evidence that practitioners still face challenges 
in acquiring and using information necessary for 
completing assessments. Practitioners routinely face 
challenges when seeking relevant data with which 
to quantify health impacts. In particular, they have 
difficulty locating specific data at the local level for 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

3

their community (Bourcier et al., 2015; Dannenberg, 
2016b; Hubbell, Fann, & Levy, 2009), accessing existing 
data sets (Chart-asa & Gibson, 2015), and finding 
current evidence to use in predicting health outcomes 
(National Research Council, 2011). With these 
considerations in mind, stakeholders may have a need 
for more readily accessible sector-specific information 
on HIAs, including tools, lessons learned, and evidence 
of translation into policy (Morley et al., 2016). 

Methods

Research Approach
Between June and November 2016, the research team 
conducted a series of focus groups to explore the 
information needs of HIA practitioners across sectors1  
and identify challenges they face accessing this 
information, with the following research questions:

1. What information do HIA practitioners need to 
ensure that their work adequately considers 
health? 

2. What challenges do HIA practitioners face when 
attempting to acquire and use this information?

The study included practitioners representing all 
sectors, with a specific focus on built environment, 
transportation, disaster/emergency preparedness, 
and planning. The research team chose these sectors 
because they each had a history of conducting HIAs to 
inform their decision making (Pew Charitable Trusts, 
2018b), and they can all benefit from the incorporation 
of health considerations. In this context, the authors 
define health in the broadest sense, including not 
just physical and mental health outcomes, but also 
environmental, political, social, community, and 
commercial factors. Prior work shows that a narrow 
definition of health or factors that influence health 
can limit the scope, application, and value of the 

assessment (Human Impact Partners, 2011; National 
Research Council, 2011). 

The research team designed the focus groups 
to understand when and how HIA practitioners’ 
incorporate health into their decision-making 
processes, their familiarity with HIAs, the tools and 
websites they use to accomplish these tasks, and 
the limitations of these tools and websites. When 
appropriate, the research team prompted participants 
to describe the features and functionality of an ideal 
website that could theoretically be designed to meet 
their needs. For practitioners with a greater level 
of experience, we inquired into their background in 
using HIAs to inform stakeholders or to prompt policy 
makers to incorporate health into their decision-
making processes. Each focus group was facilitated by 
a moderator, who followed a semi-structured interview 
script. A notetaker/co-moderator also attended each 
session.  

The research team conducted two focus groups in 
person, while holding four sessions using ThinkTank, 
a virtual platform. ThinkTank is designed to increase 
collaboration among geographically dispersed meeting 
attendees, engage and stimulate participants, and 
aggregate group feedback in real time. During the 
focus groups, participants verbally responded to 
questions from the moderator, while simultaneously 
typing their feedback into the ThinkTank platform. This 
approach ensured that all participants could respond 
to each question in the time allotted. It also allowed 
participants to respond to questions and comments 
from other attendees, thereby creating a more in-
depth conversation around each question. See Figure 1 
for a screenshot of an example ThinkTank session. This 
screenshot contains mock data and is only included to 
illustrate the functionality of ThinkTank.

1For a full list of sectors, please visit http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map.



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

4

Figure 1. Screenshot of an Example ThinkTank Session

Outreach and Recruitment

Focus group participants were identified through 
various communication methods, including newsletter 
announcements to members or grantees of the 
organizations such as the Society of Practitioners of 
Health Impact Assessment (SOPHIA), the National 
Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), Human 
Impact Partners, the Association of State and Territorial 
Health Officials (ASTHO), and the Health Impact 
Project. The research team members also asked their 
professional network of HIA colleagues to suggest 
experts representing sectors of interest. The team 
sought to include HIA practitioners from all sectors and 
with all levels of experience.

Participant Stratification

To ensure that a group with a broad background was 
assembled, the research team classified participants 
by geographic location, sector affiliation, and level of 
expertise with HIAs. Classifying information was self-

reported by participants and confirmed by the research 
team when possible. 

For geographic location, the research team sought 
professionals based out of every region of the United 
States. Regions were assigned based on the U.S. 
Census Bureau’s definition (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.). 
Recruitment efforts did lead to the inclusion of a few 
international representatives, who participated as 
scheduling would allow. 

Participants were primarily affiliated with sectors 
that incorporated health into their work and had a 
history of conducting HIAs to inform their decision 
making. However, to include as many opinions and 
perspectives as possible, the research team recruited 
practitioners from all sectors. Participants were asked 
to choose their affiliation from one of the sectors 
listed on the Health Impact Project’s map of HIAs in 
the United States (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2018b); 
however, some provided responses that did not 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

5

correspond to these categories, such as “planning” or 
“disaster/emergency preparedness and response.” In 
addition, some participants initially reported multiple 
sector affiliations. In these instances, the research 
team asked participants to identify the sector where 
they most recently conducted work pertaining to HIAs. 
Final sector affiliation was categorized by responses 
received from participants, with the research team 
clarifying as needed.

The research team attempted to recruit participants 
of all levels of HIA expertise but was constrained by 
scheduling availability, the low response rate of people 
with limited levels of HIA expertise, and prioritizing 
recruitment based on sector affiliation. Previous HIA 
expertise was divided into three categories:

Figure 2. Geographic Representation of Focus Group Attendees, by Sector

• High: Those who had conducted at least one HIA

• Medium: Those who had not worked on an 
HIA but considered health in other sectors 

• Low: Those who had not yet worked on an HIA 
or considered health in other sectors

 
Focus Groups

The research team held six focus groups, with 10 to 
15 participants attending each group. Sixty total 
individuals participated. Participants had varying 
occupations, professional affiliations, and familiarity 
with HIAs. Every effort was made to evenly recruit 
participants across the different U.S. regions. Figure 2 
provides a full breakdown of participants by region.



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

6

Participants mainly comprised people from the 
planning, disaster/emergency preparedness and 
response, built environment, and transportation 
sectors. However, people from other sectors, such as 
housing, public health, and community development, 
also attended. See Figure 3 for a breakdown of 
participant sector affiliation.

Most participants classified themselves as having a 
“medium” (28 individuals) or “high” (24 individuals) 
level of HIA expertise. Only six of the focus group 
participants considered themselves as having a “low” 
level of experience, and two people did not provide 
any information on their experience level.

Results

Each group expressed diverse information needs, and 
each indicated different challenges and barriers they 
face when accessing information. Findings suggest 

Figure 3. Sector Representation of Focus Group Attendees

that HIA practitioners from all sectors can benefit by 
integrating into their work health-related information 
and the information contained in HIAs.

Information Needs

Focus group participants described their prior 
experience incorporating health considerations into 
their work and noted their information needs. Key 
information needs are as follows. 

Type of Information Needed
Focus group participants expressed a need for several 
different types of information when incorporating 
health into their programs, policies, projects, and plans. 
Many sought baseline data related to a broad range 
of determinants of health. These data are often used 
to assess and demonstrate the effect of a completed 
intervention or to track changes in indicator status 
over time, which may establish the need to initiate an 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

7

intervention. Participants also expressed a need for 
more granular local population data, including census 
tract and block-level information. Some mentioned 
the importance of geocoded socio-demographic 
information to test for associations with variables of 
interest. Participants also sought access to reputable 
peer-reviewed sources that provide evidence-based 
information about the impact of social determinants 
and other factors with health outcomes. Last, specific 
information on technical assistance and best practices 
was frequently of interest to focus group participants.

Sources of Information
When focus group participants were asked how they 
accessed the information they needed to incorporate 
health into their work, a few themes emerged. Many of 
the focus group participants rely on their professional 
network of colleagues for suggestions or help when 
information is needed. Participants also sought 
information from universities, which are often working 
on research projects, have data, and are interested in 
collaborating with people in the field. 

Participants also noted online resources as one way 
they access information to incorporate health into 
their work. Although they did not come to a consensus 
on which specific online sources were most often used, 
some participants noted that publicly available sites, 
such as the U.S. Census Bureau’s data page or the 
CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, are 
useful. Other participants felt that the current tools 
available to search for and within existing HIAs were 
not sufficient to meet their information needs. They 
indicated that a public online resource containing the 
following information from or about HIAs would be 
useful: 

• Target population
• Determinants of health addressed
• Community type
• Keywords
• Methods
• Data sources

• Evaluation of outcomes

Conversely, participants sometimes accessed privately 
available or proprietary information. In these situations, 
access to these resources is usually restricted to those 
who requested data, posing barriers to others who 
might have an interest in that same information. 

Challenges to Acquisition and Use of Information

Focus group participants indicated several challenges 
that they encounter when trying to obtain useful 
information for incorporating health into their work, 
including using and accessing HIAs. Key challenges are 
as follows.

Lack of Data at Desired Level of Granularity
As focus group participants seek to incorporate health 
impacts into HIA and their work, they often cannot 
find data that match the size and scope of their target 
area of interest. For larger communities, data are 
usually available by ZIP code or census tract; however, 
they might not be aggregated by school districts, 
neighborhoods, or subdivisions. Participants indicated 
that applying data from another comparable area 
was an ineffective solution, because HIA practitioners 
from that area often faced the same challenges 
when attempting to acquire data. As a result, seeking 
information from comparable areas seldom led to 
any meaningful data acquisition. Last, participants 
mentioned that when they could find data to assess 
a health impact, the data quality was often a concern. 
This was because data collection methods were often 
not adequately described, or analytical approaches 
had too many limitations. 

Inaccessible Information
Participants noted that, although scientific journals 
and literature reviews can be especially useful for 
incorporating health into decision making, many 
are not available without a paid subscription, which 
not all organizations can afford. Even if cost is not a 
problem, some information sources are proprietary. 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

8

Institutions that own data, such as certain federal 
and state agencies, provider associations, third-party 
payers, private businesses, and so on, may be unwilling 
to share their data with external parties. Further, 
these institutions may keep their data records private, 
meaning that HIA practitioners might never be fully 
aware of all possible information sources.

Variations in Technology
Many participants noted that the terminology used in 
the data sources they find can be difficult to comprehend 
and to translate to their colleagues. In particular, they 
indicated that health data can be a challenge to fully 
understand and to explain to colleagues in other 
sectors. Also, focus group participants encountered 
difficulties when the same term was used in multiple 
sectors but had different meanings. 

Limited Resources and HIA Expertise
A common issue among participants was having limited 
resources, such as staff availability or organizational 
funding, to devote to seeking out HIA-related 
information. The HIA process implicitly requires a 
level of expertise and a time frame that organizations 
do not always have, so the thought of searching for 
this information may deter some groups from even 
conducting an HIA. Focus group participants also felt 
that they did not always have enough time to collect 
data that are most relevant to stakeholders, which can 
lead to lack of buy-in from key leaders and decision 
makers. Likewise, if they could obtain the desired 
data, they often could not fully understand the data 
or effectively translate their impact to another sector.

Limited Information Regarding HIA Evaluation and 
Impacts
Although outcome evaluations have been conducted 
at a national level to broadly assess the impact of 
HIAs on decision making (Bourcier et al., 2015), focus 
group participants also sought information on the 
evaluation of individual HIAs. Participants confirmed 
that results and recommendations from completed 
HIAs were useful, but they also wanted to know 

whether and how these findings were used. For 
example, has a particular HIA been used to sway a 
stakeholder or inform a policy? Information showing 
the impact of previous HIAs could help HIA champions 
in an organization make the case to their leadership for 
conducting subsequent HIAs. Participants also felt that 
HIA recommendations that have produced positive 
impacts in comparable communities or other sectors 
could be leveraged by those currently conducting an 
HIA. This impact information could also demonstrate 
the role of HIAs in shaping determinants of health and 
associated health outcomes. Feedback indicated that 
there currently is no location where practitioners can 
go to find outcomes related to specific HIAs and that 
such an online resource would be useful.

Limitations

This study had several limitations. First, insights 
were gathered through a small convenience sample 
using focus groups. Participation across sectors was 
uneven and included few participants with limited HIA 
expertise. As a result, it is likely that not all sectors have 
not been adequately represented in this process, and 
the findings of this study may not reflect the views of 
entire sectors. Future research can further investigate 
challenges identified in this study by engaging HIA 
practitioners from a wide range of sectors and a variety 
of experience levels. Furthermore, future studies 
should also focus on potential users of HIAs, including 
decision makers, policy makers, stakeholders, and 
others. Getting a clearer understanding of health-
related information needs of these groups can inform 
the structure and design of HIAs.

In addition, the authors categorized focus group 
participants by their sector. However, the authors 
could not always conclusively identify the sector of 
every focus group participant. Some participants were 
unsure about their primary sector or felt that their 
work spanned multiple sectors. Similar analysis in 
the future should establish firmer definitions of each 
sector, especially if identifying sector-specific findings. 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

9

Finally, the list of challenges included in this article is 
not meant to be exhaustive or complete, but merely 
to contain the challenges identified by the focus group 
participants. Focus group questions were open ended, 
and participants noted a variety of information needs, 
but did not discuss their experiences performing 
primary data collection (i.e., surveys and interviews 
with potentially affected populations). Success or 
barriers with gathering this type of data could be 
further investigated in future studies. Additional 
information about potential challenges experienced by 
HIA practitioners while conducting HIAs can be found 
in the HIA Handbook for Practitioners (Lin, Houchen, 
Hartsig, & Smith, 2017).

Discussion

The study was an assessment of the information 
needs of new and current HIA practitioners. Through 
focus group discussions, the authors sought to learn 
how these practitioners obtain relevant information, 
and how information included in HIAs can be more 
accessible to people across sectors. Identifying and 
understanding these needs is essential to maximizing 
the use of existing and future HIAs. Furthermore, 
improving access to this information can enable 
stakeholders to more effectively incorporate health 
considerations in their decisions.  

Feedback from the focus groups identified the 
information needs of HIA practitioners and challenges 
accessing this information from a variety of sources, 
including HIAs themselves. Challenges include 
limited data about the effectiveness of findings and 
recommendations included in HIAs, lack of access to 
some data sets used in HIAs because of their proprietary 
nature, and others. Focus group participants expressed 
difficulty accessing information included in HIAs 
because of the limited search capabilities of the 
existing HIA data sources. Addressing these challenges 
will require a multi-pronged approach including HIA 
trainings and open access policies at universities. 

Another potential strategy for overcoming these 
challenges would be the development of a web-based 
repository system for the more than 400 HIAs that have 
been completed as of October 2018. Such a repository 
could provide resources to help future HIA contributors 
develop their content and avoid common challenges, 
while enabling experienced HIA practitioners to 
determine unmet needs and assess the impact of prior 
work. Access to this information could help address 
some of the issues associated with a lack of free access 
to scientific journals. A web-based repository could 
also help HIA practitioners understand sector-specific 
terminology and expedite searching for health-related 
information.  

Prior research supports this recommendation. A study 
by Dannenberg (2016a) argued that the community 
would benefit from pilot tests of existing methods and 
tools, with the findings of the impacts of projects and 
policies uploaded to a database for others to learn 
from. In addition, those conducting or using HIAs 
are inherently tasked with justifying the time and 
funds spent on the HIA and expressing their health 
impact findings in the form of monetary value. This 
monetary value helps stakeholders (decision makers, 
HIA practitioners, and policy makers) to understand 
the potential health impacts in the proper context 
for a given sector (National Research Council, 2011). 
Consolidating this information in an easily accessible 
and comprehensive format online could help inform 
and educate stakeholders. Furthermore, a repository 
would be an excellent location to house various 
resources and educational materials. As the Committee 
on Health Impact Assessment noted, “A key barrier 
to the use of HIA is the availability of resources for 
communities and groups interested in undertaking it. 
Resources are also essential for continued education 
and training of professionals in the field, and the lack 
of resources affects the quality of HIA. Furthermore, 
resources are needed for monitoring and conducting 
evaluations” (National Research Council, 2011).
As more sectors recognize the need to address social 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

10

determinants more systemically or consider health 
impacts in decision making, this tool would play 
an increasingly important role in connecting HIA 
practitioners to the information of interest. We hope 

that this study will serve as a catalyst for developing 
this resource.



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

11

References

Bhatia, R., & Katz, M. (2001). Estimation of health benefits from a local living wage ordinance. American 
Journal of Public Health, 91(9), 1398–1402. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC1446793/ 

Bourcier, E., Charbonneau, D., Cahill, C., & Dannenberg, A. L. (2015). An evaluation of health impact 
assessments in the United States, 2011 - 2014. Preventing Chronic Disease, 12, 140376. https://dx.doi.
org/10.5888/pcd12.140376 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2018). Health impact assessment [Web page]. Retrieved 
June 15, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/hia.htm 

Chart-asa, C., & Gibson, J. M. (2015). Health impact assessment of traffic-related air pollution at the urban 
project scale: Influence of variability and uncertainty. Science of the Total Environment, 506–507, 409–421. 
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.11.020 

Dannenberg, A. L. (2016a). A brief history of health impact assessment in the United States. Chronicles of 
Health Impact Assessment, 1(1), 1–8. https://dx.doi.org/10.18060/21348 

Dannenberg, A. L. (2016b). Effectiveness of health impact assessments: A synthesis of data from five impact 
evaluation reports. Preventing Chronic Disease, 13, 150559. https://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.150559 

Dannenberg, A. L., Bhatia, R., Cole, B. L., Heaton, S. K., Feldman, J. D., & Rutt, C. D. (2008). Use of health impact 
assessment in the U.S: 27 case studies, 1999–2007. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(3), 
241–256. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2007.11.015 

Fischer, T. B., Jha-Thakur, U., Fawcett, P., Clement, S., Hayes, S., & Nowacki, J. (2018). Consideration of urban 
green space in impact assessments for health. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 36(1), 32–44. 
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2017.1364021 

Hubbell, B., Fann, N., & Levy, J. I. (2009). Methodological considerations in developing local-scale health impact 
assessments: Balancing national, regional, and local data. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 2(2), 99–110. 
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11869-009-0037-z 

Human Impact Partners. (2011, February). A health impact assessment toolkit: A handbook to conducting HIA 
(3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.humanimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/A-HIA-
Toolkit_February-2011_Rev.pdf 

Likhvar, V. N., Pascal, M., Markakis, K., Colette, A., Hauglustaine, D., Valari, M., … Kinney, P. (2015). A multi-scale 
health impact assessment of air pollution over the 21st century. Science of the Total Environment, 514, 
439–449. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.02.002 

Lin, T., Houchen, C., Hartsig, S., & Smith, S. (2017). Optimizing your health impact assessment (HIA) experience: 
HIA handbook for practitioners. Topeka, KS: Kansas Health Institute. Retrieved from https://www.khi.org/
assets/uploads/news/14753/hiahandbook_final_web.pdf 

Morley, R. M., Lindberg, R., Rogerson, B. M., Bever, E., & Pollack, K. M. (2016). Seven years in the field of health 
impact assessment: Taking stock and future directions. Chronicles of Health Impact Assessment, 1(1), 
22–31. https://dx.doi.org/10.18060/21352 

National Research Council. (2011). Improving health in the United States: The role of health impact 
assessment. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
books/NBK83546/ 

Pew Charitable Trusts. (2018a). Health Impact Project [Web page]. Retrieved June 15, 2018, from http://www.
pewtrusts.org/en/projects/health-impact-project   



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

12

Pew Charitable Trusts. (2018b). Health Impact Project: Health impact assessments in the United States [Data 
visualization]. Retrieved from http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/multimedia/data-visualizations/2015/hia-map 

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Census regions and divisions of the United States [Map]. Retrieved July 10, 2018, 
from https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf 

Waheed, F., Ferguson, G. M., Ollson, C. A., MacLellan, J. I., McCallum, L. C., & Cole, D. C. (2018). Health 
impact assessment of transportation projects, plans and policies: A scoping review. Environmental Impact 
Assessment Review, 71, 17–25. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2017.12.002 



Health Impact Assessment: An Information Needs Analysis of  HIA Practitioners Across Sectors Quattrone; Callaham; Brown; Lin; Pina

13

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Wes Quattrone, MA
Research Health Information Technology Scientist
Digital Health Policy and Standards Program at RTI International
6110 Executive Blvd, Suite 902
Rockville, MD 20852-3907
quattrone@rti.org 

CHIA Staff:

Editor-in-Chief  
Cynthia Stone, DrPH, RN, Professor, Richard M. Fairbanks School of  Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue 
University Indianapolis

Journal Manager 
Angela Evertsen, BA, Richard M. Fairbanks School of  Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue University 
Indianapolis

Chronicles of  Health Impact Assessment Vol. 3 Issue 2 (2018) DOI: 10.18060/22536
© 2018 Author(s): Quattrone, W.; Callaham, M.; Brown, S.; Lin, T.; Pina, J.
       This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article draws on work that was completed under contract with the Health Impact Project, collaboration of  the 
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The views expressed are those of  the authors and do 
not necessarily reflect the views of  the Health Impact Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts, or the Robert Wood Johnson 
Foundation.

The authors would like to acknowledge NNPHI, SOPHIA, ASTHO, Human Impact Partners, and the Health Impact 
Project for announcing our study in their newsletters and encouraging their members to participate. This greatly aided in our 
recruitment efforts.


