23 Heart age: intuitive communication tool or gateway to overdiagnosis? A comparison of 3 countries

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.