The NHS Health Check Programme in England aims to prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and certain types of dementia in people between the ages of 40 and 74 who have not been diagnosed with one of these conditions.

Imperial College London has received funding from the Department of Health to carry out a "National Evaluation of the NHS Health Check Programme." The main objective of the National Evaluation is to assess whether the Health Check programme reduces the burden of heart disease and stroke and other vascular diseases while reducing inequalities in them. This includes evaluating clinical, public health and economic impacts of the programme using CPRD data from 2013 to 2015.

Study Aims

  • Assessing characteristics and prevalence of persons at high risk of CVD using CVD risk factors in the population aged 40 to 74 years
  • Examining programme uptake, coverage, and equity by age, sex, and socioeconomic group.
  • Examining use of therapeutic interventions following a Health Check
  • Assessing changes in intermediate outcomes (BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure) and global CVD risk at absolute levels and inequalities between population sub-groups
  • Assessing longer term outcomes: development of CVD, acute CVD events such as myocardial infarction and stroke, mortality from CVD and diabetes

Patient survey

The patient survey evaluating the NHS Health Check Programme is partly funded by the NIHR Diagnostics Evidence Co-operatives/NIHR CLAHRC grant aiming to improve the NHS delivery of primary care.

Although the patient survey is done in parallel with the "National Evaluation of the NHS Health Check Programme," it is not funded by the Department of Health. The patient survey assesses patients’ attitudes and beliefs in regards to their cardiovascular (CVD) risk that cannot be examined using existing data sources. The main aim of the survey will be to see if risk perception improves as a result of attending the Health Check. Although the patient survey is done in parallel with the 'Natioanl Evaluation of the NHS Check programme', it is not funded by the Department of Health.