Heart risk check
Heart age calculator
Your heart age is the age of a person with normal risk factor levels who would have the same 10-year risk of a first cardiovascular event as you. It turns a risk percentage into an age you can compare with your own. It does not measure your heart.
Your numbers
Nothing you enter leaves this page. For adults 30 to 74 who have never had a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular disease.
What you will see
Your heart age next to your real age, and the 10-year risk it is based on.
Educational only, not medical advice. This is an estimate for groups of people like you, not a diagnosis.
Source
D'Agostino RB Sr et al., General cardiovascular risk profile for use in primary care: the Framingham Heart Study, Circulation 2008. Coefficients and the heart age method as in the Framingham Heart Study's calculators for this paper.
Validated in
8,491 participants of the Framingham Heart Study (Framingham, Massachusetts; mean age 49, 4,522 women) aged 30 to 74 and free of cardiovascular disease at a routine examination, followed for up to 12 years.
Limits
Not for people who already have cardiovascular disease, or for ages outside 30 to 74. Built in one US community, so it may fit other groups less well. Heart age restates a risk estimate; it does not measure the heart or arteries and is not a diagnosis.
What heart age means
The Framingham Heart Study's calculators for the 2008 general cardiovascular disease (CVD) equations report a "heart/vascular age" next to the 10-year risk (Framingham Heart Study). It is the age at which a person of the same sex, with systolic blood pressure 125 mm Hg without treatment, total cholesterol 180 mg/dL, HDL 45 mg/dL (or BMI 22.5 in the BMI version), no smoking and no diabetes, would have the same predicted risk as you (Framingham Heart Study). If your levels are at those values, your heart age equals your age. Higher blood pressure, smoking or diabetes push it older; levels better than those values can bring it below your age.
A CDC report described heart age as "the predicted age of a person's vascular system based on their cardiovascular risk factor profile" and as a new way to express risk, and suggested it might simplify risk communication (CDC MMWR 2015). Using the non-laboratory (BMI) Framingham model on 2011 and 2013 national survey data, it estimated that the average heart age of US adults aged 30 to 74 was 7.8 years older than their real age for men and 5.4 years older for women (CDC MMWR 2015).
How it is worked out
First the 10-year risk is calculated with the 2008 Framingham equations: natural logs of age, systolic blood pressure and cholesterol (or BMI), with yes or no for smoking and diabetes, each multiplied by its coefficient (Framingham Heart Study). Then the calculator finds the age that gives the same risk when all other values are set to the normal levels above. The Framingham Heart Study's sheets show heart ages above 85 as ">85", and so do we (Framingham Heart Study). The coefficients and the full equation are on our Framingham risk calculator page.
How we checked it
The Framingham Heart Study publishes spreadsheet calculators for both versions (Framingham Heart Study). Our tests reproduce the heart age stored in both sheets for all eight combinations of sex, version and blood pressure treatment, and re-run the sheets' own heart age formula for other profiles. For example, a 30-year-old woman with normal levels who takes blood pressure medicine has a heart age of 34 in the cholesterol version.
Heart age, Framingham risk or PREVENT?
Heart age and the Framingham risk calculator use the same equations, so they always agree; one gives an age, the other a percentage. The American Heart Association's PREVENT equations, introduced in 2023, use newer data and add kidney function (Khan 2024). Use the PREVENT heart risk calculator for that estimate, the ASCVD risk calculator for the 2013 Pooled Cohort Equations number, and PREVENT vs ASCVD for why estimates differ.
Input limits
The equations were built in people aged 30 to 74 (D'Agostino 2008). Our editorial team limits total cholesterol to 100 to 400 mg/dL, HDL to 20 to 100 mg/dL, systolic blood pressure to 90 to 200 mm Hg and BMI to 15 to 50, as on our Framingham risk calculator.
Related checks
The blood pressure ranges guide explains your blood pressure reading, the LDL calculator works out LDL from a standard cholesterol panel, and the quit smoking check covers help to stop smoking.
Sources
- D'Agostino RB Sr, Vasan RS, Pencina MJ, Wolf PA, Cobain M, Massaro JM, Kannel WB. General cardiovascular risk profile for use in primary care: the Framingham Heart Study. Circulation. 2008;117(6):743-753. PMID 18212285. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.699579
- Framingham Heart Study. Cardiovascular Disease (10-year risk): risk function, regression coefficients and spreadsheet calculators for D'Agostino et al. 2008. www.framinghamheartstudy.org/fhs-risk-functions/cardiovascular-disease-10-year-risk/
- Yang Q, Zhong Y, Ritchey M, et al. Vital Signs: Predicted Heart Age and Racial Disparities in Heart Age Among U.S. Adults at the State Level. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64(34):950-958. PMID 26335037. doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6434a6
- Khan SS, Matsushita K, Sang Y, et al. Development and Validation of the American Heart Association's PREVENT Equations. Circulation. 2024;149(6):430-449. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067626
Written and maintained by the uncovermyrisk.com editorial team. We do not have a medical reviewer; every claim links to its primary source above. Last reviewed: 2026-11-01. Spotted an error? See About.