In that many people develop cardiovascular disease as they live into old age, the lifetime risk for total cardiovascular disease (CVD) may provide projections of future population burden of CVD. John T. Wilkins, from Northwestern University (Illinois, USA), and colleagues selected data from five different cohorts included in the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project and analyzed the participants’ risk of all forms of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease from ages 45, 55 and 65 through 95 years of age. The team found that subjects with optimal risk factor profiles lived up to 14 years longer free of total CVD, as compared to individuals with at least two risk factors. Lifetime risks for cardiovascular disease were strongly associated with risk factor burden in middle age. The study authors submit that: ““We need to do everything we can to maintain optimal risk factors so that we reduce the chances of developing cardiovascular disease and increase the chances that we’ll live longer and healthier.”
