Health Risk Assessment for Individuals and Families

This article discusses health risk assessment for individuals and families, including nutrition, exercise, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, stress management, safety, and disease prevention. It also provides a case study of a family of six members and their health issues. The article concludes with insights gained and lifestyle changes that can be made to reduce health risks.

Running head: HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT 1
Health Risk Assessment
Name
Institution

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Health Risk Assessment
Health risk assessment is a questionnaire or survey used to gather any information that is
relevant regarding the status of health and the health risk factors of a population or an individual.
The assessment is an approach done systematically to retrieve data and analyse a specific group
or family. The information collected includes nutrition, lifestyle, family and individual medical
history, biometrics, demographics, exercise and diet, the self-perceived status of health and
willingness to change (Rolfes, Pinna, Whitney & Whitney, 2018). On a family level, health risk
assessment aims at the patient’s family dynamics (Stuck et al., 2015). Family health assessment
plays an integral part that provides a holistic view to assisting nurses in determining which areas
to focus. This paper will identify health issues that are common in my family.
Health risk assessment was carried out in a family of six members, with father, mother,
two brothers and two sisters. Unfortunately, all my grandparents had passed away; hence, they
could not be assessed. I never took the time to learn to learn the health history of my family
because I was part of it. My mother is a tutor, and my father is a security guard. My brother and
sister are all in school at the current time. I took data and analysed it to formulate a nursing
diagnosis. The universal health issues in my family were diabetes, hypertension and cancer. My
elder sister had been diagnosed with cancer. The family history showed that none of the family
members had been diagnosed with cancer before. None of our family members had prepared for
this disease, as it is perceived as a dangerous illness and foremost being feared.
I am a five-year-old with the total moderate physical activity of 1 hour four days a week.
I eat four portions of fruits and 200 grams of vegetables a day. I have a mean blood pressure of
130/80 mm/Hg. As suggested by Poortaghi, Salsali, Ebadi, Rahnavard & Maleki, (2015), the
questions asked include:

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 What is your height? 5 feet and 3 inches
 What is your weight? 55 Kgs
 In general, how would you rate your health? Good
 Do you exercise regularly or take part in a physical program of exercise? Yes,
more than 3
 What medical conditions do you have or have you had in the past? Anxiety,
 How often do you take medications? As needed
 When was the last time you smoked or used any tobacco products? Never
 Do you drink alcohol? No
 Have you ever used drugs to ease withdrawal symptoms, or to avoid feeling low
after using drugs or alcohol? No
 Do you ever choose not to seek medical care because of religious or personal
beliefs? No
Nutrition
The nutrition of my family consists of a balanced diet. They consume a diet rich in
cheese, meat, sausages, vegetables and fruits. They try using vegetables and try to use other
foods. The family eats three main meals per day with snacks in between the meals. Since my
sister was diagnosed with cancer, my family started avoiding any cancer-causing foods like fast
foods, processed foods and high sugar foods.
Exercise
My father likes to cook and to walk around when he is free while my mother loves
swimming. My sister walks three times in a week since she was diagnosed with cancer. My two

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brothers like cycling and playing basketball. Exercise is vital for my sister as it keeps her fit and
healthy as well holding her disease under control. Both my family members believe that body
exercise is appropriate for their health.
Tobacco Alcohol and Drugs
None of the family members smokes tobacco or drinks alcohol because of it in a
Christian family. All the family members understand the consequences as a result of
consumption of alcohol and alcohol. No illicit drugs are taken in the family, and this is health
significant because the intake of drugs weakens the body exposing the individual to health
complications such as lung cancer.
Stress Management
Management of stress depends on each in the family (Hiesmayr et al., 2015). In rating,
the score of stress management is slow, due to my sick sister which makes my family remain
under stress with worries of what might happen to her. Cancer therapy is also an expensive
ordeal with high costs, which becomes a challenge to my family regarding finances.
Safety
The score of safety is intermediate with each of the family members feeling secure socially,
economically and politically.
Disease Prevention
Based on collected data, measures and strategies were put in place to prevent diseases.
Food and water hygiene as well as food that cause cancer, diabetes and hypertension were
strictly avoided considering the health condition of my sister. The score was high.

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Insight Gained
From the history of my family, I learnt that diet plays a crucial role in disease prevention
and management especially chronic diseases. The assessment gave me answers that a physician
could not retrieve from physical evaluations. As argued by Dutta (2018), I have also learnt that
the assessment provides opportunities for patients to discuss their health issues
Assessment of Overall Health and Health Risk
I can make various lifestyle changes to reduce the chances of developing health issues.
The first one is maintaining daily physical activities that are the critical element in controlling
weight and obesity prevention. Physical activities help in reducing the risk of cardiovascular
disease, erectile dysfunction, depression, osteoarthritis, osteoporotic fractures, breast and colon
cancer, type 2 diabetes and stroke (Calle, Rodriguez, Walker-Thurmond & Thun, 2003).
The second lifestyle change I can make is eating a healthy diet. Research has found a
significant impact of food on the risk of cardiovascular disease. Research has also documented
the relationship between diet and other health conditions such as specific cancers, congenital
disabilities, dental disease, renal stones, cholelithiasis, macular degeneration, cataracts and
diabetes (Syme, 2007). Maintaining a healthy diet including limiting the intake of sodium,
limiting caloric intake for weight management, limiting sugar consumption for diabetes control
among others.
The third lifestyle that I will make is maintaining a healthy weight. Overweight people
experience 2-3 fold elevation in cardiovascular disease risks and hypertension and more than
tenfold increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes compared with lean individuals (BA, I, JC & WPT,

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2004). Both obese and overweight individuals have high mortality rates from kidney, breast, and
colon and endometrium cancer.

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References
BA, S., I, C., JC, S., & WPT, J. (2004). Diet, nutrition and the prevention of excess weight gain
and obesity. Public Health Nutrition, 7(1a).
Calle, E., Rodriguez, C., Walker-Thurmond, K., & Thun, M. (2003). Overweight, Obesity, and
Mortality from Cancer in a Prospectively Studied Cohort of U.S. Adults. New England
Journal of Medicine, 348(17), 1625-1638.
Dutta, P. (2018). Human Health Risk Assessment under Uncertain Environment and Its SWOT
Analysis. The Open Public Health Journal, 11(1), 72-92.
Hiesmayr, M., Frantal, S., Schindler, K., Themessl-Huber, M., Mouhieddine, M., & Schuh, C. et
al. (2015). The Patient- And Nutrition-Derived Outcome Risk Assessment Score
(PANDORA): Development of a Simple Predictive Risk Score for 30-Day In-Hospital
Mortality Based on Demographics, Clinical Observation, and Nutrition. PLOS
ONE, 10(5), e0127316.
Poortaghi, S., Salsali, M., Ebadi, A., Rahnavard, Z., & Maleki, F. (2015). Findings from a
Nursing Care Audit Based on the Nursing Process: A Descriptive Study. Nursing and
Midwifery Studies, 4(3).
Rolfes, S. R., Pinna, K., Whitney, E. N., & Whitney, E. N. (2018). Understanding normal &
clinical nutrition.
Stuck, A., Moser, A., Morf, U., Wirz, U., Wyser, J., & Gillmann, G. et al. (2015). Effect of
Health Risk Assessment and Counselling on Health Behaviour and Survival in Older
People: A Pragmatic Randomised Trial. PLOS Medicine, 12(10), e1001889.

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Syme, S. (2007). The prevention of disease and promotion of health: the need for a new
approach. The European Journal of Public Health, 17(4), 329-330.