Recent Findings from the AHANewsroom, “FHS Participants are living longer and with less risk…”

FHS Participants “are living longer and with less risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying from coronary heart disease, according to a new analysis that underscores the power of prevention, screening and treatment efforts.”

Scientists have known for decades about the risks posed by plaque buildup in the arteries. Coronary heart disease, for example, caused 360,900 deaths in the U.S. in 2019, according to statistics from the American Heart Association.

But [FHS researchers, Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD; Danielle M Enserro, PhD; Vanessa Xanthakis, PhD; Alexa S Beiser, PhD and Sudha Seshadri, MD] wanted to learn more about how the risk has changed over the years. To do that, they focused on “remaining lifetime risk,” or the probability that a person, at any given age, will experience cardiovascular disease during their remaining years.

Researchers used data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study that started in 1948 and now includes participants from multiple generations. The investigators calculated participants’ remaining lifetime risk from age 45 for having a heart attack or stroke or dying from coronary heart disease during three epochs: 1960-1979, 1980-1999 and 2000-2018.

Life expectancy rose by 10.1 years for men and 11.9 years for women across the three time periods. The remaining lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease fell between 1960-1979 and 2000-2018 – from 36.3% to 26.5% in women, and from 52.5% to 30.1% in men.

Researchers also found men and women in the 21st century were having their first cardiovascular disease events later in life. From 2000-2018, the average age of a first cardiovascular event was 8.1 years later for men and 10.3 years later for woman compared with 1960-1979.

“It’s a very strong message of prevention and hope,” said Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, lead author of the study published Monday in the AHA journal Circulation. . . Read More at AHANews