NHS has released an online tool that predicts your chances of having a heart attack by assessing a range of parameters including age, height, weight, smoking history, and family and personal medical history.
The tool developed by NHS Choices, Public Heath England and the British Heart Foundation aims to become more than just a heart attack prediction tool by motivating individuals to change their unhealthy lifestyles by highlighting how many years they have before a heart attack.
You will only be able to use the app if you were after 1985 and beyond the lifestyle questions there are also questions related to cholesterol and blood pressure levels, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic kidney disease and atrial fibrillation.
There are those who have said that the tool will enable people get a grip on their lifestyle and reduce their risk of getting a heart attack, but there are those who cast this tool as a generalisation and will cause distress among people. Researchers also caution that the app may push thousands into taking medication out of fear.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, an honorary consultant cardiologist at Frimley Park Hospital, cautioned the results of the calculator citing the US results and calling it “a pretty crude evaluation” quotes The Independent.
A spokesperson for NHS Choices told The Independent that the tool was targeted at “people over 40” and aimed to get them thinking “about their numbers, so they go onto the site and check their blood pressure”.
