What is a Medical Health History Questionnaire?

The health history questionnaire is a series of questions designed to help screen out activities or exercises that may be potentially harmful to certain individuals. The questionnaire itself is typically divided into several parts:

• Medical history
• Family history
• Activity history
• Musculoskeletal injury
• Smoking/Alcohol/Caffeine use
• Cardiovascular risk factors

Personal trainers, doctors, and cardiovascular specialists ask individuals to take this questionnaire before exercise in order to safely prescribe a workout routine.

Why do they matter?

Just like you wouldn't jump out of a plane without proper training and a parachute, you shouldn't jump into physical activity that may potentially harm you.

The health history questionnaire has several important purposes: to let trainers know when a referral to a doctor is necessary before exercise, to inform you of your current health status, and to safely administer a workout routine that is designed for your current fitness level.

I personally believe that the sections on cardiovascular health and family history of heart disease are very important sections. Heron (2016) informs that heart disease in the United States is the leading cause of death for men and women and for most ethnic and racial groups as of 2017.

How does exercise help?

However, exercise can help those who suffer from heart disease live healthy lives. Wannamethee et al. (2000) discovered that light to moderate PA is linked with reduced risks of all-cause mortality for men with established coronary artery disease.

Conraads et al. (2015) tracked 200 men over a supervised 12-week cardiac rehabilitation routine. Men were randomly assigned to two groups: aerobic interval training (AIT) and aerobic continuous training (ACT). Peak VO2 increased in both groups from baseline to end of the trial. Diastolic blood pressure and HDL-C also improved for both groups as a result of training.

Because heart disease is a major concern, trainers and doctors need to use health histories to keep clients safe before, during, and after exercise. Light to moderate exercise as well as aerobic interval training can improve VO2 peak as well as cardiovascular risk factors.

Using the information.

After you finish taking a health history questionnaire, the ACSM recommends using risk classifications. Exercise prescriptions are based on those classifications or groups.

• Low risk: <2 CVD risk factors (age, family history, cigarette smoking, lifestyle, obesity, hypertension, etc.)
• Moderate risk: ≥2 CVD risk factors
• High risk: Known cardiovascular, metabolic, pulmonary disease (cardiac, COPD, asthma, diabetes)

Just because a person is a high risk does not mean they cannot exercise.

• No medical exam or exercise testing is needed for low-risk patients.
• A medical exam but not an exercise test is required before exercise for moderate risk.
• A medical exam and exercise test is required before exercise for high-risk clients.

SOURCES

1. Conraads, V. M., Pattyn, N., De Maeyer, C., Beckers, P. J., Coeckelberghs, E., Cornelissen, V. A., ... & Possemiers, N. (2015). Aerobic interval training and continuous training equally improve aerobic exercise capacity in patients with coronary artery disease: the SAINTEX-CAD study. International journal of cardiology, 179, 203-210.
2. Heron, M. P. (2018). Deaths: leading causes for 2016.
3. Wannamethee, S. G., Shaper, A. G., & Walker, M. (2000). Physical activity and mortality in older men with diagnosed coronary heart disease. Circulation, 102(12), 1358-1363.