Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
The hearts of most adults in the U.S. have a higher biological age, which can mean a significant risk for cardiovascular disease.
A new online calculator based on the American Heart Association’s PREVENT equations uses risk factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure to determine biological heart age.
Knowing biological heart age can help facilitate conversations about cardiovascular health and heart disease prevention with medical professionals.
Your chronological age is not exactly the perfect indicator of your health. What many people are unaware of is that, despite their age in years, their hearts might be up to a decade older.
It is an unsettling trend. Most adults in the U.S. have now been found to have hearts biologically older than they are, with some demographics at a higher risk for heart disease than others. The higher one’s heart age is compared to biological age, the higher the risk for cardiovascular issues. This might come as a shock to anyone used to having heart disease risk assessed using a percentage.
How likely someone is to have a heart event depends on factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, stress and exercise, as well as whether they have diabetes, take certain medications, are overweight, smoke or drink. The patient’s profile is then compared to the percentage of others with the same profile who are most likely to develop heart disease. Led by cardiologist Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University, a team of researchers have now developed a calculator that assesses that risk depending on the age of someone’s heart.
“Risk age represents the age of a hypothetical person with the same predicted absolute risk but optimal risk factor levels,” the research team wrote in a study recently published in JAMA Cardiology. “This may help individuals understand how their risk compares with chronological age.”
Based on the American Heart Association’s PREVENT equations, developed in part by Khan, the online calculator is easily accessible and can help start conversations about heart disease prevention between patients and their doctors. These equations predict the likelihood for cardiovascular illness using aggravating and mitigating factors. In a 2023 study meant to figure out risk based on these equations, results were specific to biological sex but not race. The new study found that different racial groups have varying risk levels.
Using data from over 14,000 adults between the ages of 30 79 with no prior history of heart disease, Khan and her team were able to gauge risk by their cardiovascular ages. Information was obtained from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey results between 2011 and 2020. Biological males ended up having a higher risk than females. The average heart age for males was 56.7 versus an average chronological age of 49.7, while females had an average heart age of 55.4 compared to an average chronological age of 51,3.
There were also significant differences between races. Males with the highest risk were Black, with a heart age 8.5 years older than their chronological age, followed by Hispanic males at 7.9 years, Asian males at 6.7 years and White males at 6.4 years. Black females also had the highest gap between chronological and heart age at 6.2 years, with Hispanic women at 4.8 years, White women at 3.7 years and Asian women at 2.8 years. Heart age was over ten years older than chronological age in about a third of males (regardless of race) with a high school education or less.
According to a 2022 study by the American Heart Association, social disadvantage presents a greater amount of risk factors that can heighten the risk for cardiovascular disease. Heart conditions are twice as likely to be fatal in Black adults relative to White adults. Overall, 650,000 lives are lost every year in the U.S. due to cardiovascular disease. Khan is hoping that the PREVENT calculator can offer more guidance to patients and healthcare professionals.
“Many people who should be on medicine to lower their risk for heart attack, stroke or heart failure are not on these medications,” she said in a recent press release. “We hope this new heart age calculator will help support discussions about prevention and ultimately improve health for all people.”
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