A new assessment that can be performed at home has reportedly been developed that can evaluate a person’s risk of having a heart attack.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, obesity — and the myriad deleterious health conditions it can cause (including heart attacks) — has become a major public health concern, not just in the United States but the entire world.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher, and it substantially increases a person’s risk of a number of negative health outcomes. Excess weight has been connected to a heightened risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression, cancer, dementia, infertility, and more.
While popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic continue to make headlines for their documented success in treating some people with obesity, cardiovascular issues and medical emergencies like heart attacks continue to plague Americans at high rates, as DX previously reported.
Here’s some of what Newsweek published about the new heart attack risk assessment:
Researchers have developed an at-home questionnaire that is capable of assessing an individual’s risk of a heart attack in just five minutes, according to a newly published study.
The assessment could even provide the same level of accuracy as blood tests and blood pressure measurements, according to the researchers.
The questionnaire consists of 14 questions relating to factors including age, gender, weight, waist circumference, smoking, high blood pressure, high blood fats, diabetes, and a family’s history of cardiovascular disease.
According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, by integrating the respondent’s answers into a special algorithm, the test can identify 65 percent of individuals at the highest risk of cardiovascular disease.