Overview
- A Northwestern Medicine study released in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology introduced a free online tool that translates long-horizon cardiovascular risk into an age- and sex-specific percentile.
- The calculator is powered by the American Heart Association’s PREVENT equations and was evaluated using NHANES 2011–2020 data from about 8,700 adults without cardiovascular disease.
- Users input common clinical measures—blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, smoking status, diabetes history, and kidney function—to see how their risk compares with 100 peers of the same age and sex.
- Researchers reported higher absolute long-term risk for men at every age, citing a median 16% risk for men versus 10% for women at age 45, while noting women’s risk increases over time.
- The team stresses the tool is a discussion aid rather than a substitute for care, aiming to spur earlier prevention given prior findings that roughly one in seven people labeled low risk over 10 years face high risk over 30 years.