About the SHQ
The Sustainable Health Questionnaire (SHQ) has evolved and is now a 3rd-generation online health assessment questionnaire. The initial concept was developed by Professor William L. Haskell, PhD, of Stanford University, and was called the Cardiovascular Risk Assessment (CRA) tool. Subsequently, additional questionnaires have been added so that the SHQ is now a multi-tool for many aspects of health ecology. Some of the questionnaires were developed by the World Health Organization, some by the Centers for Disease Control and some are proprietary. The new multi-tool SHQ is designed for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model of primary care, and for collaborating with both employer wellness plans and with community-based organizations that deliver healthy living programs and interventions.
The CRA was one of the very first online tools now known by the name Health Risk Assessment, or HRA. The CRA focused on preventing heart attacks and strokes, and was designed to help corporate wellness programs collaborate with physicians in the clinic.
At Sustainable Health Systems, we think the concept of health risk is an "old-school" paternalistic way of viewing health promotion, one that primarily focuses on death from heart disease, strokes, and cancer. But there's lots of evidence that knowing one's risk of dying doesn't motivate most people to try and avoid those fates. We think most Americans have 4 greatest fears when it comes to their health:
- Losing your mind
- Losing the physical ability to take care of yourself
- Being a burden on your children
- Losing all of your wealth to pay for health care
The new SHQ is a tool to help you and your employer work with primary care physicians and health coaches in your community to keep everyone as healthy as possible. The SHQ is designed to help you work with your local resources to address your unique lifestyle issues, and reduce your likelihood of encountering the 4 greatest fears.
Health-care inflation threatens to kill the economic viability of American companies and American workers. Ultimately, the only way to maintain America's competitiveness is to help Americans lead healthier lives, so that we can all take more of our earnings home for ourselves and our families.
