What Is a Health Appraisal?
A health appraisal, or health risk assessment, is a tool that allows health providers to gather information about an individual’s physical health and lifestyle. It also helps doctors assess health risks, promote healthy lifestyle choices through intervention and education and provide personalized feedback, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that health risk assessments are widely used by employer-sponsored health and wellness programs. Employers often choose health risk assessments as a way to promote workplace health, raise health awareness and tailor available services under their health plans. Some employers even offer incentives, such as reduced health plan costs, for completing an assessment.
Wikipedia states that most health risk assessments include three components: a detailed questionnaire, a score that represents an individual’s risk and feedback, either through a printed or electronic report or directly from a healthcare provider. In addition to providing information valuable to individuals, health risk assessments allow businesses and healthcare providers access to a collection of data regarding the workforce as a whole. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists demographics, information about lifestyle choice, personal and family medical histories and physiological information as the types of data collected through health risk assessments for later use and review.
