Health & Screening
Health Risk Assessment (HRA)
A health risk assessment is a confidential questionnaire, often paired with basic measurements, that estimates a person's lifestyle and health risks.
What is a health risk assessment?
A health risk assessment (HRA) is a structured questionnaire that asks about lifestyle, medical history and wellbeing – for example, physical activity, diet, sleep, tobacco and alcohol use, stress, and family history of conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. It is often combined with simple measurements like blood pressure, waist size and body mass index, and sometimes with checkup results.
The output is a personal risk summary for the employee, with practical suggestions, and an aggregated, anonymised picture for the employer.
An HRA is a screening and awareness tool. It does not diagnose any condition, and anyone flagged as higher risk should be encouraged to speak to a doctor.
Why it matters for employers
Without data, wellness programs tend to be generic – the same yoga session or webinar for everyone. An HRA helps answer practical questions:
- Which risks are most common across our workforce: inactivity, poor sleep, stress, tobacco use?
- Do risks differ by location, shift pattern or age group?
- Who might benefit from targeted support, such as a diabetes prevention or weight management program?
Repeating the HRA every year or two can also show whether the overall risk profile is moving in the right direction.
Getting it right
- Keep it confidential. Individual answers should go only to the employee and, if they choose, to a clinician. HR should see group-level data only.
- Make it short and clear. Long questionnaires reduce completion.
- Close the loop. Give each person a clear result and next step – a teleconsult, a screening test or a program to join.
- Get consent. Explain how data will be used and stored, in line with India's data protection law.
Example
An insurance services company runs an online HRA before planning its wellness calendar. The aggregated report shows that a large share of respondents sleep poorly and rarely exercise, while tobacco use is concentrated in one operations site. The company plans sleep and stress workshops for everyone and a dedicated tobacco cessation program at that site. Employees with high individual risk scores are offered a free doctor consultation.
Key takeaways
- An HRA estimates health risk using self-reported information and simple measurements.
- It guides the design of a corporate wellness program based on real needs.
- Confidentiality and follow-up are essential for trust and impact.
- Learn how HRAs fit into our preventive healthcare for employees services.