Development of the Health economic assessment tools (‎HEAT)‎ for walking and cycling: consensus workshop: Bonn, Germany, 11-12 December 2014: meeting report

Overview

The promotion of active transport (‎cycling and walking)‎ for everyday physical activity is an important approach to address the challenge of high levels of physical inactivity in most regions of the world. This requires building effective partnerships with the transport and urban planning sectors, whose policies are highly influential in providing appropriate conditions for such behavioural changes to take place and be maintained. Economic appraisal is an established practice in transport planning. However, until recently the health effects of transport interventions have seldom been taken into account in such analyses. The Health Economic Assessment Tools (‎HEAT)‎ for Walking and Cycling1 provide guidance and practical, web-based tools for economically assessing the health effects of walking or cycling. It is based on the evidence on the association between walking and cycling and all-cause mortality. Coordinated by WHO, steered by a core group of multi-disciplinary experts and supported by ad-hoc invited relevant international experts, the HEAT project holds regular consensus meetings to discuss and agree upon methodological updates and new features of HEAT. The fourth consensus meeting was convened to achieve scientific consensus on 1)‎ the possibility to integrate the influence of air pollution on mortality of cyclists and pedestrians in HEAT, based on best available evidence, feasibility and state-of-art knowledge; and 2)‎ on concrete options for integrating air pollution considerations into HEAT. The meeting was attended by 21 experts from public health, transport and environmental sciences and four WHO staff members of the WHO Regional Office for Europe.