Supporting health impact assessment in practice

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a process that aims to predict potential positive and negative effects of project, programme or policy proposals on health and health inequalities. It is recommended by national government and internationally. Supporting health impact assessment is one of the roles of English Public Health Observatories.The few centres in England with accredited health impact training centres have inadequate resources to meet demand. Currently, the London Health Observatory is providing the bulk of the training nationally. Some Public Health Observatories are currently investigating the preferences for support of those commissioning or conducting health impact assessment within their regions.The availability of published guidance on how to conduct health impact assessments has increased substantially over the past few years. The Department of Health has funded a research project led by the London Health Observatory to develop advice for reviewing evidence for use in health impact assessment. Completed health impact assessments can be useful resources. Evaluation of the process and impact of health impact assessment is important in order to demonstrate its usefulness and to learn lessons for the future.The focus for Public Health Observatories is to train and support others to conduct health impact assessment according to good practice, rather than undertaking health impact assessments themselves. The aim is to create sufficient skilled capacity around the country to undertake health impact assessments. The London Health Observatory plans to share its support models and to roll out a train the trainer programme nationally to enable effective local delivery of their national health impact assessment programme. (c) 2005 The Royal Institue of Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A tentative step towards healthy public policy

More consistent attention to implementing healthy public policy, and amassing the evidence for it, are urgently required

Cigarette consumption in The Netherlands 1970-1995 - Does tax policy encourage the use of hand-rolling tobacco?

Background: Tax rises to reduce cigarette consumption are a major feature of European tobacco control policies. In many countries, hand-rolling tobacco is much cheaper than manufactured cigarettes. We Investigated whether changes in price differentials between manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes influenced cigarette consumption in The Netherlands. Method: We developed regression models to explain changes in the consumption of the two cigarette types. Price elasticities, the percentage changes in consumption for a 1% change in price, are calculated from Netherlands data for 1970-1980 and 1985-1995. Results: The ratio of manufactured to hand-rolled cigarette prices changed little during 1970-1980 but varied subsequently. On multivariate analysis, manufactured cigarette consumption in 1970-1980 decreased as its price rose (elasticity = -0.74). In 1985-1995, manufactured cigarette consumption fell with increases in both its own price (elasticity = -0.54) and in the price differential between manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes (elasticity = -0.60). During 1985-1995, roll-your-own consumption fell as the price ratio of manufactured to hand rolled cigarettes fell (elasticity = +1.0). Conclusion: When the price rise for hand-rolling tobacco is greater than the price rise for manufactured cigarettes, the fall in manufactured cigarette consumption is accompanied by a fall in roll-your-own use. Cigarette smokers are deterred from switching to hand rolled cigarettes instead of stopping smoking. This increases the health benefits of raising taxes on manufactured cigarettes, discourages the use of even more harmful forms of tobacco and may reduce inequalities in health

A comparison of measured height and demi-span equivalent height in the assessment of body mass index among people aged 65 years and over in England

Objectives: to examine differences between measured height and demi-span equivalent height (DEH) among people aged >= 65 and investigate the impact on body mass index (BMI) of using DEH.Design and Setting: nationally representative cross-sectional sample of adults living in England.Participants: 3,346 non-institutionalised adults aged >= 65, taking part in the Health Survey for England (HSE) 2001.Measurements: height, weight and demi-span measurements were taken according to standardised HSE protocols. DEH was calculated using Basseys equation.Results: the height measurement was lower than the DEH from age group 70-74 years onwards in men and in each age group in women. No significant differences in mean DEH and measured height were found for men (0.46) or women (2.64). BMI derived from measured height did not differ significantly from BMI derived from DEH. The prevalence of underweight was lower when using measured height than when using DEH in women aged >= 65, particularly in those aged 80 years and over. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher using measured height than DEH in women aged >= 65.Conclusion: we confirmed in a large nationally representative sample that demi-span measurement may be a useful estimate of stature in people (particularly women) aged >= 65 for BMI calculations

Mathematical modelling of health impacts

Mathematical modelling is seldom applied to research of global measures of health or health inequalities mainly because of the lack of studies of interventions necessary to underpin modelling research