Effect of health as measured by health risk appraisal-derived health indices on medical claims

A primary objective of health promotion research is to shift the medical care paradigm from a system involved almost exclusively with diagnosis and treatment to one that emphasizes prevention. Economics becomes the lever to help people shift their paradigm; thus, in order to accomplish this, more high quality, reproducible health promotion research in this area is required. This study represents a first step in this process via the examination of the association between health risk as defined by a HRA-generated health index 30 (calculated two ways) and individual medical care expenditures in a working population.;Analysis of health data from 356 QUALCOMM employees explored the relationships among this study's variables: (a) medical claims costs, (b) HEALTH INDEX:RATIO, (c) HEALTH INDEX:SUBTRACTION, (d) health age, (e) age, and (f) gender. Multiple regression results indicated gender to be a significant moderator of the relationship between health risk and costs. A closer look at the data suggest that health age was the most valid measure of health as it related to medical claims costs for men, and that both health indices were the valid measures of health as it related to medical claims costs for women.;The strongest relationship tested was between HEALTH INDEX:RATIO and medical claims costs for women, suggesting that healthy women had higher medical claims costs and less healthy women had lower medical claims costs. This discovery runs contrary to the researcher's anticipation that healthy women would have lower medical claims costs than less healthy women. More attention must be devoted to this area of research via an exploration of factors such as frequency of medical care utilization and types of medical claims filed in order to clarify the relationships found here. This study, alongside other studies, will hopefully increase the attention given to gender as an important moderator in the relationship between health and medical care---thereby providing justification for funding additional studies and preventive interventions.;30The health risk appraisal (HRA) instrument uses a questionnaire to assess personal health practices and habits, lifestyle, and medical and family histories to derive a computer-generated compilation of risk of dying from the leading causes of death for an age/sex-matched population.