DEVELOPMENT AND CASE-CONTROL VALIDATION OF THE CANADIAN MEN’S HEALTH FOUNDATION’S SELF RISK-ASSESSMENT TOOL: “YOU CHECK”

Background and Objective:

To facilitate the engagement of men in the evaluation of their own health status and risk of disease, we have developed and validated the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation’s self-risk assessment tool (“You Check”). In a single questionnaire, the “You Check” tool estimates the 10-year risk for myocardial infarction (MI), diabetes type 2 (DM), osteoporosis (OS), erectile dysfunction (ED), and low testosterone (LT). Additionally, the tool provides the user with his risk-factor profi le for prostate cancer and his current risk of depression (using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale).

 Materials and Methods: 

Known risk factors for each disease were collated, the questionnaire designed, and risk scores for each dis-ease were assigned by clinical experts. A risk formula was developed using the sum of risk scores divided by their own range. We validated the risk models with case-control data from a retrospective review of 400 outpatient records from 4 Vancouver family practice clinics. Maximal correct classifi cation proportions were determined and used as thresholds for categorization of risk to low, medium, or high categories.

 Results: 

For DM, sensitivity and specifi city were 0.86 and 0.96 respectively and the Area Under Curve was 0.88 (95% Confi dence Interval [CI] 0.81-0.94). For MI these values were 0.70 and 0.93, and 0.75 (0.65-0.85); for LT 0.70 and 0.90 and 0.75 (0.66–0.84); for OS 0.70 and 0.86 and 0.70 (0.61–0.80); and for ED 0.42 and 0.96 and 0.66 (0.58–0.75).

Conclusion:

This is the fi rst comprehensive men’s health self-risk assessment tool for 7 important diseases. Moderate internal validity was demonstrated for 5 diseases, meeting the public health objectives of “You Check” which is now in the public domain and under appropriate monitoring and evaluation (https://youcheck.ca).

men’s health, risk assessment, risk model, internal validation

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