On the campus of UNC Charlotte in North Carolina, a health risk assessment program is not only researching health patterns and a person's health risks, but providing health numbers to people within minutes.
It's considered a hidden gem on the campus, but the health risk assessment program has already helped close to eight hundred people.
"We go out in the community, specifically to about six different senior centers, in the community and we do a health risk assessment; if we bring a group of students, and our director of the lab, Dr. Trudy Moore-Harrison, out to the community, and we perform body composition assessments, blood lipid profiles, pulmonary testing, and agility testing as well,” said Adam Lavis, a lab manager at UNC-Charlotte’s Department of Kinesiology.
The lab is located right on campus. "We can test an individual's aerobic capacity, body composition, via various means. We look at blood pressure, cholesterol levels, we look at agility and balance, which may not be an obvious risk factor, but if you're maybe an older individual, and you don't have balance, that could increase your risk for falling or fractures, which is a big deal,” said Lavis.
Anyone at any age can participate. "Anybody's welcome to come participate in our programs, so you can look at your health numbers, and maybe if you have any concerns,” said Lavis.
The program hopes to raise awareness of health risks and students have found the work in the program to be beneficial. "The biggest thing I've learned is that fitness is super super important, not for just you as a person now and days, but as you also age, it can be very beneficial,” said Haley Gettinger, a student at UNC-Charlotte.
Lavis says overall they hope to help the community through the program. "The main goal of the research is just to increase community awareness about health risks and disease, so we look at, as a greater Charlotte community, as a whole, what's kind of the risk for diabetes out there, or who has high blood pressure, is this something we should address on a high level or is it below the radar, we need to spread the word,” said Lavis.
To schedule a health risk assessment, contact the department at 704-687-0874 or visit the campus website at http://kinesiology.uncc.edu/health-risk-assessment-program.