Study calls for heart drugs at 55

The study says preventive treatments like cholesterol and blood pressure lowering drugs could be given to all people over 55 Continue reading the main storyRelated StoriesWaist fat 'increases heart risk'Tomato pill 'beats heart disease'Gum and heart link 'breakthrough' All those over 55 should be offered drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, according to a new study.

The report says that when assessing the risk of heart problems, offering treatment to all over-55s had the same results as testing for cholesterol or blood pressure problems.

The authors also argue it would be more simpler and cost effective.

But the Department of Health says the focus of the study is too narrow and ignores other health problems.

Writing in the open access journal PLoS ONE the authors, from the Wolfson Institute at Barts and the London Medical School, said age was by far the biggest factor in assessing someone's risk of cardiovascular disease such as heart attack or stroke.

They compared the effects of two screening programmes on a theoretical population of 500,000 people.

The first approach used screening just by age, where, at the age of 55, people would be offered preventive treatment, regardless of whether they were at risk.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteThe policy of selecting people above a certain age is, in effect, selecting people at high risk. It recognises that age is by far the most important determinant of that risk with other factors adding little extra prognostic information”

End QuoteProfessor Sir Nicholas WaldDirector of the Wolfson Institute The second approach used existing screening methods, based on age and sex, and whether someone was a smoker or has high blood pressure or cholesterol.

They found that both approaches had an 84% detection rate, but that offering everyone preventive treatment at 55 would be more cost effective.

The two methods also had a broadly similar false-positive rate - in other words, using age alone would diagnose 24% of people as being at risk, when in fact they would not go on to develop heart problems.

Existing methods of screening identified 21% of false-positives.

If screening by age alone was introduced, the authors believe it could prevent as many as 100,000 heart attacks and strokes each year in England and Wales alone.

Professor Sir Nicholas Wald is the lead author of the report and Director of the Wolfson Institute.

He said: "This study shows that age screening for future cardiovascular disease is simpler than current assessments, with a similar screening performance and cost effectiveness. It also avoids the need for blood tests and medical examinations.

"With age screening, all individuals above a specified age would be offered preventive treatment. Everyone would benefit because, for blood pressure and cholesterol, the lower the better.

"The policy of selecting people above a certain age is, in effect, selecting people at high risk. It recognises that age is by far the most important determinant of that risk with other factors adding little extra prognostic information.

"Prevention is better than measurement. Identifying people at high risk of cardiovascular disease needs to be greatly simplified, enabling people to obtain easy access to preventive treatment from nurses and pharmacists as well as from doctors."