The World Heart Federation and Unilever have announced a new online ‘heart age calculator’ (click here >>). ‘Heart age’ is described as ‘a new, personally motivating way of expressing an individual’s risk of developing heart disease and stroke’, and builds on the Framingham Risk Score, which uses standard risk factors for heart disease or stroke (such as age, weight, gender, cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking). The result gives individuals a personal motivation for changing their behaviour to try to bring their heart age in line with their chronological age. The tool has been piloted in 18 countries.
To coincide with the online tool launch, Unilever has published a new report, ‘What If People’s Hearts Stayed Young?’, which estimates the potential effect of reducing heart age. If people with elevated heart age were able to reduce their heart age by three years, predicted CVD events could be reduced over the next decade by an estimated 216,000 in the United Kingdom, and by an estimated 1 million in the United States. Further, the modelling calculates that if everyone – not just those with high heart ages - managed to keep their heart age as young as their chronological age then the predicted number of CVD events over 10 years could be reduced by an estimated 986,000 in the United Kingdom and by an estimated 5 million in the United States.
Leading CVD experts have pledged their support for the tool, and the concept of 'heart age', including Professor Pekka Puska (President of the World Heart Federation), who commented: ‘If Heart Age can engage individuals and motivate them to change their diet and lifestyle for the better, no matter what their level of risk, then this could be a breakthrough in the global effort towards improved CVD prevention, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and sparing many more the misery of heart disease and stroke.
Source: WHF press release, 9 June 2009.