Find out your risk of heart disease 10 years early with online tool
A new online tool could predict your risk of heart disease by up to 10 years early. The calculator can determine a person's heart age and work out their cardiovascular disease risk.
Heart health is a huge issue across the UK. According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), around 7.6 million Brits are thought to be living with cardiovascular disease. This includes conditions like coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure.
Cardiovascular disease is also a major contributor to fatalities in the UK, accounting for one in four premature deaths in the UK. The same is true worldwide, with the disease linked to around a quarter of all deaths.
Now, researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago have created a simple way to help people understand more about their potential risk. This involved gathering information needed to calculate a person's 'heart age'.
This is not necessarily the same as their chronological age. People with issues such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and obesity are more likely to have a higher heart age, for example.
Sadiya Khan, the Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology and the study's senior author, said: 'We hope this tool helps doctors and patients discuss risk for heart disease more effectively so we can better inform what therapies can prevent heart attacks, stroke, or heart failure events from ever happening.'
After creating the calculator, the team trialled it on more than 14,000 US adults between the ages of 30 to 79, who had participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2011 and 2020. At the time of the survey they did not have a cardiovascular disease diagnosis.
But following analysis, researchers found that on average, women had a heart age of 55.4 and a chronological age of 51.3, while men had a heart age of 56.7 and a chronological age of 49.7.
Prof Khan continued: 'Many people who should be on medicine to lower their risk for heart attack, stroke or heart failure are not on these medications. We hope this new heart age calculator will help support discussions about prevention and ultimately improve health for all people.
'The important thing is that we have very good options available in our toolbox to help slow that aging down if we can identify it. This may be even more important in younger people who don't often think about their risk for heart disease.'
To calculate your heart age use the online tool here. If you are concerned about your heart health, you should speak to your GP.
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