Identify, Track and Reduce Health
Risks With a Health Risk Assessment

This requires a comprehensive and medically credible health risk assessment. Risk appraisal data have a unique predictive value unlike any other in our healthcare arsenal. Risk factors provide the crystal ball view of a population's chronic conditions. For those organizations interested in actually preventing the onset of diseases versus just looking for alternative ways of paying for them, an employee health risk assessment program clearly highlights risk targets — drawing a road map for prevention strategies.

This is the goal behind the Mayo Clinic Health Assessment. Our approach goes beyond simple assessment and targets key risks for change.

The Mayo Clinic Health Assessment starts with the premise that people can have a significant impact on future health outcomes by their day-to-day lifestyle choices. This premise is supported by the scientific literature and summarized in the Surgeon General’s report, Healthy People 2010. In fact, more than 50 percent of the causes of premature death in this country are attributable to lifestyle choices.

Many of the health behaviors that increase long-term risk of death, such as smoking, inactivity and poor eating habits, can have more immediate and very important near-term impact on health, absenteeism and productivity compared with more frequent but less serious illnesses such as colds, flu or injuries.

Research also indicates that the presence of multiple risk factors sharply increases the degree of risk of health problems and health costs. Accordingly, the goal for lifestyle behavior change advocated through the Mayo Clinic Health Assessment is to reduce the total number of risks, based on which ones the individual is ready to change. By incorporating readiness to change questions, the Health Assessment can provide constructive feedback and encouragement to tackle those health changes for which they may have the greatest chance of success.

In selecting the medical and lifestyle risk indicators incorporated into the Mayo Clinic Health Assessment, we have applied the Pareto principle, identifying the “20 percent of indicators that are likely to affect 80 percent” of the causes of premature death. Over the years, medical research has accumulated considerable evidence that links a core set of medical and lifestyle indicators to increased risk of a variety of health problems. The Mayo Clinic Health Assessment focuses on seven critical lifestyle areas in which individuals have great potential to reduce risk of future health problems, as well as key medical indicators most linked to increased health risk.

Medical Indicators TC-HDL Ratio Blood Pressure Blood Glucose Weight Triglycerides

Lifestyle Indicators Physical Activity Tobacco Use Dietary Fat Intake Fruit/Vegetable Intake Stress Alcohol Intake Seat Belt Use

Mayo Clinic expertise drives health
risk identification approach

We put the full Mayo Clinic experience into the development of a question set that reflects the most current thinking on health risks and health risk indicators. Our questionnaire is under the constant direction of a team of Mayo Clinic medical, scientific and design experts.

This team represents a broad range of expertise from the fields of medicine, epidemiology, health education, behavior change, and Web development and design. We use expert consensus recommendations on health guidelines and preventive measures. Our review and updating process also includes industry trends in health risk assessment and population health management as well as input from clients about population health management priorities and directions.