Developing a comprehensive Women’s Health Risk Assessment (HRA) Tool – Vancouver

Dr. Carolyn Gotay

Dr. Carolyn Gotay, Laura Dale and C Chan from the Cancer Prevention Center have teamed up with the Men’s Health Initiative led by Dr. Larry Goldenberg and his colleagues to construct a comprehensive Women’s Health Risk Assessment (HRA) Tool. This tool will complement an HRA instrument that Dr. Goldenberg’s team has designed for men. Health risk assessments (HRAs) are questionnaires that provide individuals with objective information about how likely they are to develop a certain disease. These tools can also inform users about how they can reduce their risks, and they actively encourage positive health behaviour change. There are many questionnaires that assess individual risk of developing a specific chronic disease; however, few tools provide a comprehensive assessment that gives women information about their risks for developing different chronic diseases. This is particularly important, since many chronic diseases share similar risk factors.

Laura Dale (l) and Carolyn Gotay (r). Not pictured: C Chan

They are conducting a critical review of the literature to identify the best evidence-based HRA tools for multiple cancers (breast, ovarian, lung, and cervical), pulmonary disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cardiovascular diseases (stroke and cardiovascular disease), depression, and osteoporosis in women. These data will be used to design an online questionnaire providing a multi-disease risk assessment. The aim of this tool is to provide Canadian women between the ages of 20-65 who are interested in taking control of their health with a tool that will give them information and motivation to move forward.

The project is funded with support from SunLife.

Source: SPPH Summer activities series