A team of experts has introduced a new risk calculator called PREVENT, designed to estimate an individual’s risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke, and now heart failure.
This tool aims to help healthcare professionals and patients take earlier action to reduce heart disease risk.
Innovative Features of the New Risk Calculator
Published in the journal Circulation, the American Heart Association’s PREVENT calculator includes several advancements over the previous tool:
Expanded Measures: It factors in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome, a recently defined condition by the AHA that increases the risk of heart-related issues.
Broader Age Range and Long-Term Predictions: The tool can assess individuals from ages 30 to 79 and predict cardiovascular risks over the next 10 and 30 years, offering a longer-term perspective than the prior 10-year focus.
Sex-Specific Results: The PREVENT calculator provides distinct risk evaluations for each biological sex, recognizing the differences in heart disease risk and progression between men and women.
Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors: An option to include an index reflecting social determinants like education, poverty, and environmental conditions is available, aiming to improve accuracy across racial and ethnic groups.
Notable Exclusions and Considerations
Notably, the PREVENT calculator does not use race as a variable in its equations, aligning with the understanding that race is a social construct, not a biological determinant of disease risk.
Instead, the tool acknowledges the impact of racism and social factors on heart disease risk, calling for further research to address these disparities.
The Importance of Heart Failure Evaluation
The inclusion of heart failure in the risk assessment acknowledges the growing concern about this condition, especially among individuals with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, or kidney disease, where the risk for heart failure can often surpass that for heart attack or stroke.
Implementing PREVENT in Healthcare
The PREVENT tool is currently being developed into an online resource and represents a significant step in integrating CKM health and social factors into risk prediction for cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Sadiya S. Khan, who led the development of the statement, highlights the need for conversations between health professionals and patients to improve health outcomes through lifestyle changes and, if necessary, medications.
The PREVENT calculator is poised to transform how health risks are evaluated and managed, with the potential to help prevent cardiovascular diseases more effectively through early intervention and personalized care strategies.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies that apple juice could benefit your heart health, and results showing yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease.
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