Mon Nov 11 12:47:55 UTC 2024: ## Race-Free Heart Disease Risk Score Shows Promise, Study Finds
**CHICAGO, Nov. 11, 2024** – A new version of the MESA heart disease risk score, which does not include race, has shown equal predictive power compared to the original version that incorporates race, according to a preliminary study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2024. This finding suggests a potential way to address racial disparities in healthcare by eliminating a potentially biased factor in risk assessments.
The study, led by Quinn White, a doctoral student at the University of Washington, Seattle, focused on a modified version of the MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) score. The original score, developed in 2015, utilizes traditional risk factors, sex, race, and coronary artery calcium (CAC) levels to predict the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) over a ten-year period.
However, the modified score removes race as a variable, relying instead on factors like cholesterol levels, blood pressure, family history of heart disease, smoking status, and diabetes. The researchers found that this race-free version performed virtually as well as the original in predicting CHD risk.
“This work is part of a growing effort to assess the implications of including race and ethnicity in clinical risk prediction models,” said White. “This change broadens the potential use of the score, since it can now be calculated for those who do not fit into one of the racial or ethnic groups of the original score and for those who do not wish to disclose their race.”
Dr. Sadiya Khan, Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Northwestern School of Medicine, emphasized the importance of diverse population samples and accurate predictors in developing such models. “With these two things in place, the model performs well, even without the social construct of race,” she stated.
This study, funded by the American Heart Association’s De-biasing Clinical Care Algorithms project, highlights a potential shift towards more equitable clinical decision-making. “This research is helping change assumptions about the role of race in risk calculation,” said Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., chief of data science for the American Heart Association. “As other risk calculators are revised, we hope that they support more equitable clinical decision-making.”
While the findings are promising, researchers acknowledge the study’s limitation of focusing on only four racial and ethnic groups. Further research is needed to confirm these results with a more diverse population.
This study adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that race-free risk prediction models can be as effective as those that include race, offering a potential path towards more equitable healthcare practices.
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