The American Heart Association is taking a proactive approach to assessing cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) with its PREVENT (Predicting Risk of cardiovascular disease EVENTs) risk calculator. Read this article to learn more about this technology and how it can help you get timely treatments.
How Does PREVENT Help You Understand Your Heart Disease Risk?
PREVENT has several system updates that can accurately predict your risk of heart disease.
These include:
● It considers heart failure as an outcome, alongside heart attack and stroke
● It is more accurate and reliable for women, as the calculations are separate for men and women
● It considers kidney disease and metabolic health as factors for determining heart disease risk
● It doesn’t consider race as a risk factor
How Effective is the Calculator?
PREVENT is designed to give doctors and patients accurate results about cardiovascular disease risk. It operates using “pooled cohort equations,” which are mathematical formulas that use social and biological factors to calculate risk over a given period. In this case, PREVENT predicts risk over two-time frames, i.e., 10 years and 30 years.
It can also be used to determine the development of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome (CKM). This is a disorder that affects your heart, kidneys, and metabolism. PREVENT can predict CKM’s development, which is separated into four stages.
This ranges from no CKM risk (stage 1) to having some form of heart disease and CKM risk factors (stage 4).
Why Doesn’t PREVENT Consider Race as a Heart Disease Risk?
A major change to the PREVENT calculator is its omission of race as a risk factor. To be clear, race is strongly connected with heart disease development and treatment outcomes. However, this was left out from the calculator’s last update to avoid seeing it as a non-modifiable biological risk factor, resulting in race-specific treatment decisions by doctors.
How To Use PREVENT
PREVENT should only be used in the conversation with your healthcare provider. As such, you should use it on your own.
Researchers believe that using PREVENT could help healthcare professionals predict heart disease risk in middle-aged individuals. They also said 80% of cardiovascular events are preventable, and understanding the AHA’s Essential 8 is a good place to start. These factors can help individuals learn about how to maintain their heart health.
Conclusion
The American Heart Association’s new calculator, PREVENT, has been updated to include new risk factors such as kidney and metabolic disease. It’s also a useful tool for estimating heart health risks for individuals above age 30 for 10- and 30-year periods.
