Current projects

Delivering health checks in the workplace: an implementation evaluation of the Workplace Cardiovascular Disease Checks Pilot

  • Health care
  • Health improvement


  • Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the main causes of death in England. It is largely preventable by reducing risk factors such as smoking, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet.

    In England, the NHS health check programme aims to identify people at risk of developing CVD and to support them in improving their health by providing advice and medication (if needed). It targets people aged 40 to 74 years who do not have an existing diagnosis of CVD, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. People can receive a health check every five years.

    To date, uptake of the NHS health check has been low, and existing data show that some people are less likely to attend than others, such as men and younger people. This is of concern given that men have a higher risk of developing CVD than women and on average develop CVD about 10 years earlier.

    To improve access and increase uptake among those who are less likely to have had an NHS health check, the government is piloting a programme to run CVD health checks in the workplace. The pilot includes 45 local authorities who are being asked to deliver a total of 150,000 workplace CVD health checks during by the end of March 2025.

  • Our study aims to provide learning from this pilot. We are focusing on how feasible it is to implement the CVD health check in workplaces, and whether doing so increases uptake among people who are less likely to have had an NHS health check.

  • The research involves several stages. First, we will review applications that local authorities submitted to participate in the pilot. Next, we will undertake a survey to understand how local authorities are running workplace CVD health checks - who is running them, how they engage workplaces, and how approaches differ between local authorities and different types of workplaces. We will also explore which workplaces participate in the programme and whether this includes workplaces with high numbers of employees who are less likely to have had an NHS health check.

    In the third stage, we will carry out interviews with a wider range of stakeholders in a select few local authorities to gain a deeper understanding of what has worked well or not so well, for whom and under what circumstances. Finally, we will analyse data on who has received a CVD health check in the workplace to examine inequalities in uptake of checks or in the detection of CVD risk factors. We will involve members of the public to advise on the conduct of the research, interpretation of results and reporting.