Age-stratified comparison of heart age and predicted cardiovascular risk in 370 000 primary care patients

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) preventive medications are recommended for patients at high short-term CVD risk. As most younger people with multiple raised CVD risk factors levels have low short-term risk, they could be falsely reassured to take no action. Heart age-the chronological age of a hypothetical person with the same short-term absolute CVD risk as the patient being assessed, but with an 'ideal' risk profile-is a complementary relative CVD risk metric developed to encourage these younger patients to make long-term lifestyle changes. However, clinicians sometimes use heart age to inform medication decisions. We assessed the appropriateness of this practice by comparing heart age and short-term CVD risk.