title: Cardiovascular health status and health risk assessment method of preference among worksite employees.
abstract: We investigated whether employees (n = 62) selecting a self-report Health Risk Assessment (HRA) would be at increased CVD risk compared to employees (n = 114) choosing an HRA with measurement of cardiovascular (CVD) health indicators. Participants were mostly middle-aged (44.1 +/- 0.8 yr) men (71.6%) displaying borderline features of the cardiometabolic syndrome. Although there were no significant differences between the groups regarding their measured CVD health status or self-reported lifestyle habits, employees in both groups consistently over-stated their level of cardiovascular health. Contrary to reports in the literature, cardiovascular health status did not appear to influence employee HRA method of preference.Editors' Strategic Implications: These findings await replication in other samples, both more diverse and less self-selected. Nonetheless, the authors' methods and their conclusions about workers' over-estimation of their health and the lack of differences across assessment methods will be useful to employers, health professionals, and all practitioners with an interest in health risk assessments.
authors.affiliation: University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. lmarschke@hcsm.org
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Marschke
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Denis A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Coble
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Zellner
authors.forename: Randi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aiudi
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Linda S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Pescatello
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D016272:Occupational Health; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States