Knowing the current state of health of your heart is crucial – and determining the “real” age of your heart can be a suitable tool to do so.
Northwestern Medicine researchers in Chicago, USA, have developed a cardiac age calculator To help people better understand their cardiovascular health – and help doctors more clearly communicate to their patients what is at stake.
NO, whose results were published on Wednesday in JAMA Cardiologythe investigators used their tool to Calculate the cardiac age of a group of participants based on their global risk of cardiovascular disease.
The investigators were surprised by the results: many had a “Cardiac age” much larger than your real agein some cases for over a decade.
Although the awareness of public health on heart disease is improving, it remains main cause of death in most western countries.
“A fundamental reason for this mortality is that people who need heart health interventions often don’t know itand lose care that could help them, ”explains Sadiya khanProfessor at Northwestern University and main author of the study at the University.
“We hope this tool will help doctors and patients discuss the risk of heart disease more effectively so that we can better report on which therapies can prevent heart attacks, strokes or heart failure events,” Khan said.
The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend that the Risk of cardiovascular disease (DCV) of a patient is periodically evaluated to guide treatment strategies.
Normally, doctors communicate the cardiovascular risk as a percentage – For example, saying that there 20 % stroke risk over the next 10 years. This value means that in 100 people with similar health profiles, it is expected that 20 have a stroke during this period.
However, Percentages may seem abstract “And they may not be motivating enough to encourage people to take action.”
The new tool calculates a person’s cardiac age using routine health data as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetic state and life habits like smoking.
The Northwestern team tested their calculator using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which included about 14,000 participants between 30 and 79 years of Historial DCV.
The results were clear: on average, Both women and men They had heart ages larger than your real ageranging from three to over 10 years. The age difference was especially wide in menparticularly those with lower educational formation and black and Hispanic communities.
So, how old is your heart? Do the.
