A new and more accurate method of assessing people at risk from cardiovascular disease (CVD) is set to improve national diagnosis rates and identify those at risk among black and minority ethnic groups.
QRisk2, an equation developed to help doctors identify those most at risk of developing CVD for the first time, simultaneously takes into account extra risk from ethnicity, social deprivation and other clinical conditions such as family history of heart disease or diabetes.
The study, to develop QRisk2, was undertaken by QResearch - a not-for-profit partnership between The University of Nottingham and leading primary care systems supplier, EMIS.
Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Queen Mary's and from Bristol and Medway Primary Care Trusts also supported the project.
Doctors will be able to use this information to help decide how best to target patients with preventative measures such as lifestyle advice and cholesterol-lowering treatments.
The research reveals that certain ethnic groups are at much greater risk than the general population, with men of Pakistani background being nearly twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. For Bangladeshi men, the risk increases by nearly 70 per cent.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that the Framingham equation, based on American data from a predominantly white population, be modified to take into account the increased risk in South Asian men. However, no adjustment is recommended for South Asian women.
QRisk2 identifies the risk of CVD in this portion of the population, indicating that in Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, the risk is 43 per cent, 80 per cent and 35 per cent higher, respectively, than in the background population.