Why assess absolute CVD risk?

Absolute cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment brings together multiple risk factors to give an estimate of combined risk of heart attack or stroke in the next five years.

The burden of CVD remains high. CVD in Australia:

• causes one in four of all deaths¹
• claims the life of one person every 13 minutes¹
• accounts for 1,619 hospitalisations per day.²

It is estimated that one-fifth of Australian adults aged 45 to 74 years – or 1.4 million people – are at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years.³

Modifiable CVD risk factors such as those mentioned above account for 90% of risk of heart attack, reinforcing the fact that CVD is largely preventable.

The absolute CVD risk approach

Absolute CVD risk assessment takes an integrated approach. It brings together multiple cardiovascular risk factors to give an estimate of the combined risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke in the next five years (see Figure 1).

Creating even a moderate reduction in several risk factors is more effective in reducing overall CVD risk than a major reduction in a single risk factor alone.

Figure 1. An illustration of how individual CVD risk factors can combine to increase overall risk.

Since their launch in Australia in 2009, and update in 2012, the absolute CVD risk clinical guidelines have become the mainstay of treatment decision making for the primary prevention of CVD. However:

• there is still suboptimal assessment of risk factors
• 70% of high-risk individuals aged 45 to 74 years are not receiving guideline-recommended blood pressure and lipid lowering therapy.³

A planned approach using Heart Health Checks supports such interventions.

Absolute CVD risk principles

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CVD risk calculators

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