Background: UK hospitals are required to monitor the health promotion services they provide
for patients. We compared the use of audit and patient questionnaires as appropriate tools for
monitoring whether patients are screened for modifiable risk factors (smoking, alcohol use,
obesity, diet, and physical activity), whether staff correctly identify risk factor presence and deliver
health promotion when a risk factor is identified.
Methods: We sent a questionnaire post-discharge to 322 hospitalised adult patients discharged
alive between January and March 2006, and audited their hospital case notes for evidence of
screening for risk factors, identification of risk factors, and delivery of health promotion to change
risk factors. Agreement between the audit and questionnaire findings was assessed by Kappa
statistic