Public Health Plans | Local Government | Environmental Determinants of Health
Environmental determinants of health
There are many factors, or determinants, that influence health, most of which are non-medical. These determinants can operate as either risk factors or protective factors, and often interact with one another over time.
Environmental determinants of health refer to the physical, chemical, biological, and place-based features external to a person within the built, natural, and social environments that positively or negatively influence health behaviours, exposures, wellbeing, and overall population health outcomes. Environmental determinants have a considerable impact on health – The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates about 22% of the global burden of disease, and 23% of all deaths are attributable to modifiable environmental factors.
Importantly, health is strongly shaped by the circumstances and quality of the places in which people are born, grow, live, work, play, and age. These conditions influence the opportunities places provide for healthy choices and behaviours, exposures, and ultimately the health and disease risk of individuals and communities. Examples include air quality, temperature, access to parks and nature, walkability, shade, transport options, housing, food environments, safety, and broader environmental quality. Creating healthier environments is thus a key pathway to improving population health.
The benefits of measuring environmental determinants of health
Measuring changes in health behaviours and outcomes such as physical activity, obesity, or chronic disease is inherently complex, often relies oneself-report measures, is influenced by many factors, and often only observable over long timeframes. In contrast, environmental conditions and changes to the built and natural environment can be measured more directly, updated more frequently, and influenced more readily through local government action.
Measures of enviornmetal determinants therefore provide a practical proxy for tracking progress toward health behaviours and outcomes by measuring and monitoring the environments that directly shape them.
From Public Health Plan priorities to practical measures
With the support from a Healthy Communites grant from Healthway, we are piloting the use of the Thriving Perth Portal and the development of a Healthy Environments Audit Tool to undertake health-focused environmental and urban design audits.
Public Health Plans are broad and can contain actions spanning many different areas of community health and wellbeing. Rather than attempting to measure everything at once, the project works with each participating local government to identify a smaller number of priority areas that are particularly important to their community or are a current focus for Council.
For each priority area, we then work with the local government to develop a suite of practical and meaningful measures using data available through the Thriving Perth Portal and other relevant datasets. The measures are designed to help councils:
Benchmark – Where are we now? Establish baseline conditions and provide a benchmark against which future change can be assessed.
Support prioritisation of actions and identify gaps and opportunities – What’s missing or needed? Identify geographic areas, communities or infrastructure where interventions could potentially deliver the greatest health and liveability benefits.
Assist with integrated delivery across local government functions, departments and strategic priorities
Track progress – How are we improving over time? Use ongoing data updates to monitor environmental change, assess the impact of interventions and demonstrate progress against Public Health Plan objectives and actions.
This provides a practical mechanism for translating Public Health Plan actions into on-ground implementation, helping councils move from identifying broad public health objectives to understanding where action should be prioritised and what can be measured to demonstrate progress.
Different councils, different priorities
Importantly, different local governments do not need to focus on the same priorities. One council might work with us to develop measures around urban heat and shade, another around active transport and walkability, and another around healthy food environments.
By applying this approach across participating local governments, the project will progressively build a library of tested measures, indicators and spatial analysis methods. Measures developed with one council can then be adapted and reused by other local governments where they are relevant, reducing duplication and creating greater consistency in how Public Health Plan implementation can be measured across Perth and Peel.
The case studies will also showcase the diverse work already being undertaken by local governments, while demonstrating how spatial data can translate Public Health Plan objectives and actions into practical measures that can be mapped, benchmarked and monitored.
From individual case studies to a shared resource
Over the life of the project, these individual case studies will contribute to a growing evidence-based library of measures and indicators within the Thriving Perth Portal, spanning areas such as the environment, physical activity, healthy eating, mental wellbeing, equity and access, and other public health priorities.
The aim is not to create a one-size-fits-all approach to Public Health Plan evaluation. Instead, we are building a flexible framework that allows local governments to select measures relevant to their own priorities while benefiting from methods and indicators developed collaboratively with other councils.
Who are we working with so far?
The Healthy Environments Audit Tool is already being put into practice through a growing series of local government case studies across metropolitan and regional WA.
Each participating local government is bringing its own Public Health Plan priorities, local challenges and opportunities to the project. Together, we are developing and testing practical spatial measures that can help translate these priorities into evidence, action and measurable outcomes.
Our current case studies include:
City of Vincent – exploring healthy advertising and food environments, SunSmart environments and urban canopy, including opportunities to connect public health measures with the City’s Environmental, Sustainability and related strategic priorities.
City of Gosnells – examining community safety and crime, streetlighting and opportunities to strategically prioritise LED streetlight replacement, as well as the location, accessibility and provision of sport and recreation facilities.
Further results and updates will be shared as this work with each local government progresses.
Could your local government be our next case study?
We’re looking for local governments across Perth and Peel to partner with us to trial and shape the Healthy Environments Audit Tool and demonstrate how spatial evidence can strengthen public health planning in practice.
Whether you’re developing your next Public Health Plan, turning existing actions into on-ground initiatives, identifying where investment is most needed, or looking for better ways to measure and demonstrate progress, we want to work with you.
Bring us your Public Health Plan priorities. We’ll work with you to turn them into practical, measurable and mappable actions.
Interested in becoming a participating local government? Get in touch with the Thriving Perth Portal team to discuss how we can work together.