PREVENT Online Heart Risk Disease Calculator
- Alastair Hunt
- Jun 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 29
The American Heart Association has launched a new heart disease risk online calculator, designed to better predict your personal risk of developing heart disease or heart failure. Built from health data of over 6 million U.S. adults aged 30 to 79, this tool goes far beyond outdated checklists that focus only on cholesterol and blood pressure.
As ever, please talk to your doctor or medical practitioner most familiar with your medical history before implementing any changes in diet, exercise or lifestyle, especially if you are under treatment. Links to relevant studies at bottom of page.
What is PREVENT?
Instead of just flagging people over 40 with “high” cholesterol", PREVENT offers a clearer, more complete picture — tailored to your age, sex, lifestyle, kidney function and overall metabolic health.
It combines everyday health measures: blood pressure, cholesterol levels, kidney function (eGFR), diabetes status, smoking habits and whether you take medications for blood pressure or cholesterol.
Optional features include markers for metabolic health (like HbA1c), kidney damage (urine albumin), and your area’s level of social disadvantage.
It works equally well for men and women, people with obesity, diabetes or chronic kidney disease, and it avoids outdated race-based risk adjustments.
It predicts not only 10-year risk, but also your 30-year outlook — helping younger people see what’s coming if risk factors go unchecked
The beauty of PREVENT lies in its real-world accuracy. Compared to older tools (like the Pooled Cohort Equations), PREVENT is better calibrated. That means what it predicts is much more likely to match what actually happens — especially for people with overlapping risks from conditions like diabetes and kidney disease.
For example, if you're 50 with high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and kidney disease, PREVENT can estimate your risk of not just a heart attack — but also heart failure — in the next decade or three. It offers a clear, individualised forecast, helping guide early action with confidence.
This new model also highlights the power of kidney and metabolic health in protecting the heart — especially for those living with obesity or in disadvantaged areas of the USA. It helps open the door to better-targeted care and more informed conversations between you and your doctor.
Assess
You will be asked for various health stats, e.g.
Blood pressure
Total cholesterol
HDL cholesterol
these we knew and one that we (you as well?) did not, eGFR for kidney function. So we put in 'an average figure for healthy adults'.
Average eGFR for men: ~90–120 ml/min/1.73m²
Average eGFR for women: ~85–115 ml/min/1.73m²
With the data from your last check-up in hand, you can use the calculator - click on the image - below. If you don't have the data, time to get checked perhaps?
Final Thoughts
How do you fare? Understanding and assessing risk is a vital part of self-care. Knowing the numbers - good or bad - can allow us to take appropriate action. And what is good for the heart - diet, exercise, rest, destress - is not only good for the heart but also for the brain and the entire body!
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Stay Healthy,
Alastair
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Related Studies and Resources
Khan SS, Matsushita K, Sang Y, Ballew SH, Grams ME, Surapaneni A, Blaha MJ, Carson AP, Chang AR, Ciemins E, Go AS, Gutierrez OM, Hwang SJ, Jassal SK, Kovesdy CP, Lloyd-Jones DM, Shlipak MG, Palaniappan LP, Sperling L, Virani SS, Tuttle K, Neeland IJ, Chow SL, Rangaswami J, Pencina MJ, Ndumele CE, Coresh J; Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium and the American Heart Association Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Science Advisory Group. Development and Validation of the American Heart Association's PREVENT Equations. Circulation. 2024 Feb 6;149(6):430-449. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067626. Epub 2023 Nov 10. Erratum in: Circulation. 2024 Mar 12;149(11):e956. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001230. PMID: 37947085; PMCID: PMC10910659.
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