Employee Health Promotion

Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments, are an assessment tool or questionnaire scientifically designed to identify health risks and outline information to assist individuals in making healthy changes that influence their health and prevent chronic conditions. Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments have four standard elements in worksite settings:

• A Questionnaire
• A Computer Program to Review Health Risk Factors
• Confidential Individual Reports
• Group Summary Report

Workers complete a lifestyle questionnaire that includes for example diet practices, height and weight, exercise habits, family history, stress perceptions, smoking history, and work satisfaction. Another valuable feature to consider is readiness to change questions to determine participation interest. Including wellness screenings such as cholesterol and Blood Pressure results increases the benefits of an Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment by providing a more accurate health assessment and therefore improving lifestyle choice decisions and program options. However, it is valuable to determine if the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment can be used without including this information. The health risk questionnaire information is entered into a computer program and an individual confidential report is generated that summarizes health risks as well as information on how to decrease risk factors. Individual reports are completely confidential. Depending on the reason for launching the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, it’s valuable to consider the type of report the business will receive as well. A group report summarizing major risk factors and recommendations for programs to enable in order to decrease employee and business risks provides valuable information for your wellness program. The Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments have the potential to be used to:

• Raise awareness to individual employee’s health status
• Encourage employees to make healthier lifestyle changes
• Coach elevated-risk employees
• Plan Employee Health Promotion Programs based on the identified needs
• Review program performance by comparing Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments completed at set intervals such as yearly.