Health screening in work has become a key issue in improving employee performance and reducing the risk of healthcare costs. Electronic kiosks, as automated tools for occupational health check, can be set up in a workplace to monitor employee well-being by providing health related information. Wellpoint have developed a range of health kiosks and the UK Department of Health, local UK councils as well as NHS have deployed many of them at their borough for members of staff and public to use.
The kiosks record physical measures, e.g. body mass index (BMI), body fat content, blood pressure and heart rate, and can include specific questions, for instance, relating to medical history. These inputs along-with some demographic information; e.g. age, sex, ethnicity and post-code, can be used to estimate a user's risk of having a cardiovascular event (i.e., heart attack or stroke) over the next ten years (known as the QRISK score).
Study Objectives
For this pilot study, one Wellpoint kiosk was placed in the University Hospitals Bristol Education and Research Centre, and another in Leicester Diabetes Centre from 16th October 2014 to 10th March 2015. After receiving outputs, participants were asked to complete a short questionnaire on intention to change behavior e.g., regarding physical activity, eating, smoking habits and weight management.
Out objective is to evaluat the Wellpoint health kiosks and analyse the health outcomes of participants who used them.
Research Team
The research team of the study consisting of: Dr. Osama Mahmoud; Dr. Sam Leary; Dr. Vanessa Marshall; Prof. Julian Hamilton-Shield. This is a joint project with NIHR Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity BRU.
Dissemination of Project Outputs
Some aspects of the study were presented in a poster session at the Society and Faculty of Occupational Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting, 27th-30th June 2016, Stratford Upon Avon, UK. The title of the poster was addressed as:
- Mahmoud O, Leary S, Marshall V, Kazi A, Hamilton-Shield J: The Role of Wellpoint Health Kiosks: A Service Evaluation Study. The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Occupational Medicine, ASMSOM 2016. London, UK, 27-30 June 2016.
The full describtion of the study and its detailed findings were written in a journal paper and submitted for publication:
- Mahmoud O, Leary S, Marshall V, Kazi A, Hamilton-Shield J: An Evaluation of Wellpoint Health Kiosks: A Pilot Study [Submitted for publication].
Project News
You can view the related published news of the Univerity of Bristol Nutrition BRU on the project from here