HRA stands for Health Risk Assessment or Health Risk Appraisal.  A Health Risk Assessment is a questionnaire that’s asks for an individual’s information on key health habits and history.

• Demographic Information (such as age, sex)
• Biometrics or Physical Information (such as height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels)
• Lifestyle Information (such as diet and exercise)
• Attitudes about Readiness to Change
• In some cases Family Medical History

This questionnaire will then compute the answered questions using algorithms and statistics that compare that individual to data throughout the country (sometimes world).   And is able to report that individual’s current health status and what their risk areas are. 

Benefits of an HRA are:

• Provides individuals with a snapshot of their current health status.

• Enables individuals to monitor their health status over time. Particularly if you take a health risk assessment several times per year or if you modify a behavior taking a new assessment is a good idea to see how you are improving.  Taking multiple assessments will allow you to compare current health scores with prior scores to see if you are getting healthier.

• Informs individuals of areas where they need a lifestyle change.

A Health Risk Assessment is an information tool that reports an individual’s probability of dying from specific disease over a defined period of time. 

A HRA does not diagnose disease and should not replace consultation with a medical or health practitioner it only brings awareness to health risk factors for an individual.