Health Risk Assessment

1
Health Risk Assessment

• Dr. James M. Eddy
• Professor and Chair
• Division of Health Education
• Texas A M University

2
Health Risk Assessment

• Health Risk Assessment is based on
• three steps
• 1. Measurement of specific risk.
• 2. Estimation of risk based on actuarial
  techniques
• 3. Feedback to participants

3
Things Affecting Popularity

• Medical profession increasing focus on prevention
• Growing acceptance of computers
• The interest of society in health promotion and
  wellness

4
Factors to Consider

• The expectations of the HRA
• Is it an end or a means?
• The intensity of the interaction with
  participant.
• The relationship to a health promotion
  intervention, counseling or medical care.

5
Why HRAs are Popular

• HRAs are novel.
• We are fond of numbers, averages, etc.
• HRAs predict the future.
• HRAs provide new knowledge.

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Useful Characteristics of HRAs / Potential
Benefits

• Personalize information
• Encourage involvement of the participant
• Structures an opportunity for discussion
• Relatively inexpensive and easy to use
• Systematic approach to health information and
  modified risk factors

7
Useful Characteristics of HRAs / Potential
Benefits (continued)

• Provides group data which summarizes major health
  problems and risk factors
• When integrated into a broader health promotion
  program, HRAs may increase motivation to change
  or maintain health behaviors

8
Things that Limit Effectiveness

• Complexity and quantitative emphasis
• The inherent difficulty in understanding
  probabilistic concepts
• Does not diagnose disease
• Does not provide a complete medical history and
  is not a substitute for a medical exam
• Does not assess social or environmental risk
  factors

9
Things that Limit Effectiveness(continued)

• The discomfort participants may experience in
  discussing some of the prognosis factors
• The framework of risk of dying may be less
  conducive to learning than a more positive one.
  Even the notions of adding years to life may
  evoke the threat of death.

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HRA is a Method and a Tool to...

• Estimate a persons risk of
• getting a specific disease, both physical and
  mental
• dying from that disease
• dying within a defined period.

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Related Hypotheses

• Given a particular disease with known incidence
  risks, a change in the prevalence of these risks
  in the population will result in a change in the
  incidence of the disease.

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Related Hypotheses

• Giving people information about their own risk
  will lead to action to reduce the risk.
• These actions will result in a change in the risk
  of the disease in the individual.

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General Ethical Guidelines For HRA Use

1. Health assessment program planning
2. Health assessment instrument selection
3. Health assessment participant orientation
4. Health assessment administration

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General Ethical Guidelines For HRA Use (continued)

• Health assessment data security
• Health assessment report interpretation
• Health promotion resource accessibility
• (The Society For Prospective Medicine, Handbook
  of Health Assessment Tools)

15
HRAs Should NOT Be Used

• as a scare tactic.
• in lieu of a physical examination or other tests.
• as an end rather than a means.

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HRA Examples

• Healthier People HRA
• American Cancer Society Health Risk Assessments

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Closing Tips

• Plan your event or program including the process
• Be sure of the details
• Select the appropriate instrument
• Use qualified HRA administrators
• Have resources available
• Protect data