Approved research

Evaluation of the clinical value of emerging risk factors for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease

Lay summary

Project: Evaluation of the clinical value of emerging risk factors for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease Improved screening for heart disease may play an important role in future reductions in cardiac disease. Various screening tools are available and new ones continue to be proposed, which leads to numerous proposed screening strategies. However identification of the best screening strategy for a population and particularly for individuals is difficult to determine. Previously, decision models have been used to determine which strategy will be the most useful. These models have been designed to encompass screening on both a population and individual level. We aim to identify potential emerging risk factors for heart attacks and strokes and to develop a model in which universal clinical makers can be identified and evaluated. The model will be primarily based on existing risk algorithms in the UK using currently available baseline data from UK Biobank participants and will be updated when the data on outcomes and baseline measures (e.g. lipid profile) become available (separate future applications). The model will be designed to estimate the costs and occurrence of important events, such as heart attacks and stroke or death by other causes. The model will take into account an individual?s known risk factors for heart attacks and strokes, such as age, sex, blood pressure, presence of high cholesterol levels and smoking behaviour. Newly identified risk factors captured in UK Biobank can then be added to this basic model which will help identify cost-effective screening strategies for heart attacks and strokes. This research proposal is consistent with UK Biobank?s mission of health related research in the public interest.