Self Scored Cardiovascular Disease Risk Appraisal

Health risk appraisals (HRA) are being used increasingly by health centers and worksites to informpersonal mortality and morbidity risks. However, recent research suggests that many HRAs have limitevalidity with respect to coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in this country. Self-scconsiderably less accurate in predicting CHD risk than computerized instruments, chiefly because peoknow the physiologic values required by these instruments and because they frequently make errors coCVD risk studies conducted during the past decade now make it possible to devise the next generationappraisals. The objective of Phase l of this project is to design a self-scored HRA for the risk ofHRA will address the shortcomings of existing instruments identified by previous research. Informatithe HRA will be drawn from the Massachusetts Health Risk Appraisal Project, which contains both selftechnician-measured values of major risk factors. The scoring algorithm will be based on recent multfrom major epidemiologic surveys. A psychometric assessment of the instrument will be conducted in P