Cardiovascular health status and health risk assessment method of preference among worksite employees.
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.
Marschke
Lisa M
LM
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. lmarschke@hcsm.org
Allen
George J
GJ
Coble
Denis A
DA
Zellner
Scott R
SR
Klein
Randi
R
Aiudi
Barbara
B
Murphy
Donna
D
Pescatello
Linda S
LS
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