Scientists invent new tool that determines your 'heart age' as compared to your actual age
08-01-2025

Scientists invent new tool that determines your 'heart age' as compared to your actual age

When clinicians talk to patients about preventing heart disease, they typically describe risk in dry percentages such as “eight out of 100 people like you may have a heart attack in the next decade.” Many Americans find that hard to grasp – and the numbers do not always move them to action.

A research team at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine thinks there is a clearer, more motivating way to translate cardiovascular danger: tell people the age of their heart.

In a new study, epidemiologist Dr. Sadiya Khan and colleagues introduce an online calculator that converts standard health information – blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking status, and diabetes – into a single “heart age.”

The metric is anchored to the American Heart Association’s new PREVENT equations, which Khan also helped develop.

“We hope this tool helps doctors and patients discuss risk for heart disease more effectively so we can better inform what therapies can prevent heart attacks, stroke, or heart-failure events from ever happening,” Khan said.

Testing “heart age” globally

The premise is intuitive: if laboratory results and lifestyle factors give you the cardiovascular profile of an older person, you probably need to rethink prevention. Conversely, if your heart age matches or beats your birth certificate, you might be on track.

To validate their calculator, Khan’s team mined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a rolling study that measures the health of the U.S. population.

They focused on 14,000 adults aged 30 to 79 who had never been diagnosed with heart disease. For each person, they calculated chronological age and heart age, then compared the two.

The patterns were sobering. Across the board, Americans carried older hearts than their birthdays would suggest. Women averaged a heart age of 55.4 despite being only 51.3 years old.

The gap was wider for men: an average heart age of 56.7 versus an actual age of 49.7 – roughly seven extra “cardiac birthdays.”

Race and income age hearts

The researchers drilled deeper into the data to see how these gaps varied by education, income, and race or ethnicity. These factors are known to track with cardiovascular outcomes.

Men with no more than a high-school education showed the greatest disconnect: almost one-third possessed hearts at least a decade older than their bodies.

Racial and ethnic contrasts were stark as well. Among men, Black participants had a heart age 8.5 years older than their chronological age. Hispanic men trailed at 7.9 years, followed by Asian men at 6.7 and white men at 6.4.

Women showed similar but smaller gaps. Black women had the oldest hearts relative to their age (a 6.2-year difference), while Asian women had the youngest (2.8 years).

These numbers, the authors argue, reveal how structural forces – access to health care, exposure to chronic stress, the cost of nutritious food – literally age the heart faster in some communities than others.

Risk that feels personal

Cardiovascular disease has remained the nation’s leading cause of death for more than a century, even in the face of better medications and public-health campaigns against smoking.

A key reason, Khan said, is that millions of people who would benefit from preventive therapies never start them – or start too late. She believes the new heart-age tool can turn abstract percentages into something people feel viscerally.

“Many people who should be on medicine to lower their risk for heart attack, stroke, or heart failure are not on these medications,” Khan explained.

“We hope this new heart-age calculator will help support discussions about prevention and ultimately improve health for all people.”

The idea draws on behavioral research showing that vivid, easily understood messages spur action.

A person who hears their heart is “ten years older” may grasp the urgency of lowering blood pressure, quitting cigarettes, or beginning statin therapy. They may respond more readily than someone handed a 10 percent risk score.

Heart aging tool, with limits

The online tool, available for free, asks for five inputs: age, sex, total cholesterol, HDL (“good”) cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and whether the user smokes or has diabetes. With one click it produces a heart age and a brief explanation.

Khan’s team is quick to add caveats. The calculator is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Its equations are built on large-population averages, but individual factors – such as family history, kidney disease, or inflammatory conditions – can raise or lower risk outside the scope of the tool.

Users should discuss results with a clinician before changing medications.

To ensure clinicians embrace the approach, the researchers are planning follow-up studies that track whether framing risk as age improves adherence to blood-pressure drugs, statins, or lifestyle programs. They also aim to see whether it reduces heart attacks and strokes over time.

Getting through to young adults

One finding leapt out of the NHANES analysis: people in their thirties and forties often carried heart ages ten or more years beyond their chronological age.

Yet they rarely meet intensity thresholds for preventive medications under current guidelines. Khan hopes the metric will spotlight hidden risk among younger adults who still feel invincible.

“The important thing is that we have very good options available in our toolbox to help slow that aging down if we can identify it,” she said. “This may be even more important in younger people who don’t often think about their risk for heart disease.”

Why “heart age” stats matter

The heart-age calculator could also equip public-health agencies and employers to tailor interventions.

Communities where the average heart age dwarfs chronological age might benefit from subsidized blood-pressure screenings, mobile clinics, or healthier food outlets.

Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasize the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes.

They can also provide resources and support to facilitate increased fast walking within all communities.

Khan echoes that spirit for heart-age awareness. By translating risk into an easy-to-grasp figure, the team hopes to close gaps in prevention and push heart disease – long the country’s top killer – down the leaderboard at last.

The study is published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

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