Project to Modify the CDC Health Risk Appraisal for Blue Collar Workers.

Details

• Personal Author:
  McLanahan M ; Ramsey D ; Rowland A ; Shy, Carl M.
• Description:
  A report on a project to modify the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) version of the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) to increase its credibility for use with blue collar workers was presented. Increased credibility was accomplished by identifying questions not easily understood by the blue collar worker, incorporating occupational risk factors into the questionnaire, and evaluating how the format of the interpretive computer printout was likely to be received. The HRA and an occupational health questionnaire (OHQ) were pretested with nine blue collar workers who were patients at a medical center, six members of a housekeeping staff at a university, and six painters at the same university. Attempts to pretest in the private sector were unsuccessful because the occupational component of the questionnaire was seen as too threatening and as a potential documentation of legal liability. Questions of the OHQ focused on worker perception of symptoms they believed were job related. Basic problems in understanding the risk factor questions were discussed. Difficulties with the HRA included words which some workers could not understand, lack of knowledge of individual blood pressure or cholesterol levels, the question on alcohol use, the question on violence, and the concept of risk age. The OHQ health questions were well received and understood. However, the psychosocial questions were found confusing and the validity of the responses were an issue. The authors recommend that the life style questions be simplified, risk age be eliminated as the motivating concept for the interpretive session, more occupational risk factor questions be incorporated, and more emphasis be given to how the questionnaire is followed up. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Occupational-health-programs; Worker-health; Risk-factors; Health-protection; Industrial-hazards; Occupational-exposure; Occupational-health; Risk-analysis; Health-standards; Occupational-safety-programs
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Indiana ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  14-17
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00180278
• Citation:
  NIOSH 1986:14-17
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Developmental Projects on Worksite HRAs (NIOSH), Selected Papers of the 21st Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, November 25, 1985, Society of Prospective Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, L. A. Miller, Ed.; pages 14-17, 1 reference
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/242557/cdc_242557_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]