Risk Assessment Calculator
About This Risk Assessment Calculator
This risk assessment calculator uses the Framingham coronary prediction algorithm to predict the risk of coronary heart disease over the course of 10 years.
Users of this risk algorithm should be aware of several caveats:
- The risk estimating score sheets are only for persons without known heart disease.
- The Framingham Heart Study risk algorithm encompasses only coronary heart disease, not other heart and vascular diseases.
- The Framingham Heart Study population is almost all Caucasian. The Framingham risk algorithm may not fit other populations quite as well.
- For some of the sex-age groups in Framingham, the numbers of events are quite small. Therefore, the estimates of risk for those groups may lack precision.
- Other organizations are considering how the information from the Framingham risk algorithm, as well as other assessments of risk, might best be incorporated into clinical practice. As new information and guidelines become available, they will be added.
- The Framingham risk score estimates the risk of developing CHD within a 10-year time period. This risk score may not adequately reflect the long-term or lifetime CHD risk of young adults, which is: one in two for men and one in three for women.
- The presence of any CHD risk factor requires appropriate attention because a single risk factor may confer a high risk for CHD in the long run, even if the 10-year risk does not appear to be high.
- Since age is a prominent determinant of the CHD risk score, the 10-year hazards of CHD are, on average, high in older persons. This may over-identify candidates for aggressive interventions. Relative risk estimates (risk in comparison with low risk individuals) may be more useful than absolute risk estimates in the elderly.
- The score derived from this algorithm should not be used in place of a medical examination.
Source: Wilson PWF, D'Agostino RB, Levy D, Belanger AM, Silbershatz H, Kannel WB. Prediction of coronary heart disease using risk factor categories. Circulation 1998;97:1837-1847. [Abstract] [Article]
For an accurate assessment of your heart health, please contact the Midwest Heart Specialists office to make an appointment to see a doctor.
Age - This risk calculator requires that you be between the ages of 30 and 74. If you are older or younger than this, you cannot use this calculator.
Total Cholesterol - Total cholesterol is the sum of all the cholesterol in your blood. The higher your total cholesterol, the greater your risk for heart disease.
HDL Cholesterol - High density lipoproteins (HDL) is the 'good' cholesterol. HDL carry cholesterol in the blood from other parts of the body back to the liver, which leads to its removal from the body. So HDL help keep cholesterol from building up in the walls of the arteries.
Blood Pressure - Systolic blood pressure is the first number of your blood pressure reading, diastolic is the second. For example, if your reading is 120/80 (120 over 80), your systolic blood pressure is 120 and your diastolic blood pressure is 80. You need to enter a value for at least one of these.