ASCVD Risk Is Low Among Adults Younger Than 50
The prevalence of elevated risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is low in women younger than 50 years old and men younger than 40 years old who do not smoke or have hypertension, according to the results of a recent study.
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Guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) have recommended lipid screening for adults over 20 years old in order to identify individuals at risk for ASCVD. In order to further examine the risk of ASCVD among nondiabetic adults younger than 50 years old, researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The review included 9608 participants aged 30 to 49 years without known ASCVD.
Using the ASCVD risk calculator created by the ACC/AHA, the researchers estimated 10-year ASCVD risk, subdividing individuals by age, sex, and history of smoking and hypertension.
Overall, 47.12% of the 9608 participants were categorized as low-prevalence, defined as individuals “in which a greater than 1% prevalence of elevated cardiovascular risk could be ruled out.”
In individuals without hypertension and who did not smoke, 0.09% of men younger than 40 years and 0.04% of women younger than 50 years had elevated risk of ASCVD. Among other subgroups, 0% to 75.9% of participants had increased risk.
“In the absence of risk factors, the prevalence of increased ASCVD risk is low among women younger than 50 and men younger than 40 years,” the researchers concluded.
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Patel KK, Taksler GB, Hu B, Rothberg MB. Prevalence of elevated cardiovascular risks in young adults: a cross-sectional analysis of national health and nutrition examination surveys. Ann Intern Med. 2017;166(12):876-882.