23 Heart age: intuitive communication tool or gateway to overdiagnosis? A comparison of 3 countries
Type
PresentationAuthor/s
Bonner, CarissaMcKinn, Shannon
McCaffery, Kirsten
Glasziou, Paul
Doust, Jenny
Jansen, Jesse
Bell, Katy J.L.
Abstract
Heart age calculators are increasingly popular around the world as a way to promote and communicate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment to patients/consumers. While they have intuitive appeal, the implicit assumptions behind heart age calculator algorithms have important implications for informed decision making and screening programs. This presentation compares the use of heart age in three countries to illustrate potential problems for disease mongering and inadvertently expanding screening programs, and how to avoid these problems.Heart age calculators are increasingly popular around the world as a way to promote and communicate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment to patients/consumers. While they have intuitive appeal, the implicit assumptions behind heart age calculator algorithms have important implications for informed decision making and screening programs. This presentation compares the use of heart age in three countries to illustrate potential problems for disease mongering and inadvertently expanding screening programs, and how to avoid these problems.
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Date
2019Source title
BMJ Evidence-Based MedicinePublisher
BMJ Publishing GroupLicence
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0Faculty/School
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney School of Public HealthShare