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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Oct 5;389(14):1273-1285.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2206916. Epub 2023 Aug 26.

Global Effect of Modifiable Risk Factors on Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality

Global Cardiovascular Risk ConsortiumChristina Magnussen  1 Francisco M Ojeda  1 Darryl P Leong  1 Jesus Alegre-Diaz  1 Philippe Amouyel  1 Larissa Aviles-Santa  1 Dirk De Bacquer  1 Christie M Ballantyne  1 Antonio Bernabé-Ortiz  1 Martin Bobak  1 Hermann Brenner  1 Rodrigo M Carrillo-Larco  1 James de Lemos  1 Annette Dobson  1 Marcus Dörr  1 Chiara Donfrancesco  1 Wojciech Drygas  1 Robin P Dullaart  1 Gunnar Engström  1 Marco M Ferrario  1 Jean Ferrières  1 Giovanni de Gaetano  1 Uri Goldbourt  1 Clicerio Gonzalez  1 Guido Grassi  1 Allison M Hodge  1 Kristian Hveem  1 Licia Iacoviello  1 M Kamran Ikram  1 Vilma Irazola  1 Modou Jobe  1 Pekka Jousilahti  1 Pontiano Kaleebu  1 Maryam Kavousi  1 Frank Kee  1 Davood Khalili  1 Wolfgang Koenig  1 Anna Kontsevaya  1 Kari Kuulasmaa  1 Karl J Lackner  1 David M Leistner  1 Lars Lind  1 Allan Linneberg  1 Thiess Lorenz  1 Magnus Nakrem Lyngbakken  1 Reza Malekzadeh  1 Sofia Malyutina  1 Ellisiv B Mathiesen  1 Olle Melander  1 Andres Metspalu  1 J Jaime Miranda  1 Marie Moitry  1 Joseph Mugisha  1 Mahdi Nalini  1 Vijay Nambi  1 Toshiharu Ninomiya  1 Karen Oppermann  1 Eleonora d'Orsi  1 Andrzej Pająk  1 Luigi Palmieri  1 Demosthenes Panagiotakos  1 Arokiasamy Perianayagam  1 Annette Peters  1 Hossein Poustchi  1 Andrew M Prentice  1 Eva Prescott  1 Ulf Risérus  1 Veikko Salomaa  1 Susana Sans  1 Satoko Sakata  1 Ben Schöttker  1 Aletta E Schutte  1 Sadaf G Sepanlou  1 Sanjib Kumar Sharma  1 Jonathan E Shaw  1 Leon A Simons  1 Stefan Söderberg  1 Abdonas Tamosiunas  1 Barbara Thorand  1 Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe  1 Raphael Twerenbold  1 Diego Vanuzzo  1 Giovanni Veronesi  1 Julia Waibel  1 S Goya Wannamethee  1 Masafumi Watanabe  1 Philipp S Wild  1 Yao Yao  1 Yi Zeng  1 Andreas Ziegler  1 Stefan Blankenberg  1
Collaborators, Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Global Effect of Modifiable Risk Factors on Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality

Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium et al. N Engl J Med. .

Abstract

Background: Five modifiable risk factors are associated with cardiovascular disease and death from any cause. Studies using individual-level data to evaluate the regional and sex-specific prevalence of the risk factors and their effect on these outcomes are lacking.

Methods: We pooled and harmonized individual-level data from 112 cohort studies conducted in 34 countries and 8 geographic regions participating in the Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium. We examined associations between the risk factors (body-mass index, systolic blood pressure, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, current smoking, and diabetes) and incident cardiovascular disease and death from any cause using Cox regression analyses, stratified according to geographic region, age, and sex. Population-attributable fractions were estimated for the 10-year incidence of cardiovascular disease and 10-year all-cause mortality.

Results: Among 1,518,028 participants (54.1% of whom were women) with a median age of 54.4 years, regional variations in the prevalence of the five modifiable risk factors were noted. Incident cardiovascular disease occurred in 80,596 participants during a median follow-up of 7.3 years (maximum, 47.3), and 177,369 participants died during a median follow-up of 8.7 years (maximum, 47.6). For all five risk factors combined, the aggregate global population-attributable fraction of the 10-year incidence of cardiovascular disease was 57.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 52.4 to 62.1) among women and 52.6% (95% CI, 49.0 to 56.1) among men, and the corresponding values for 10-year all-cause mortality were 22.2% (95% CI, 16.8 to 27.5) and 19.1% (95% CI, 14.6 to 23.6).

Conclusions: Harmonized individual-level data from a global cohort showed that 57.2% and 52.6% of cases of incident cardiovascular disease among women and men, respectively, and 22.2% and 19.1% of deaths from any cause among women and men, respectively, may be attributable to five modifiable risk factors. (Funded by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK); ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05466825.).

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Associations of continuous risk factors with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality allowing for non-linear effects. Global analyses. Individuals with cardiovascular disease at baseline were excluded. Age was used as the time scale. All five risk factors considered were included in the models together with use of antihypertensive medications. A one-year landmark analysis was performed. Confidence interval widths have not been adjusted for multiplicity and should not be used in place of hypothesis testing. To convert the values for non-HDL cholesterol from milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) to millimoles per liter (mmol/L), multiply by 0.02586.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Associations of risk factors with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality allowing for effects to change with age. Global analyses. Individuals with cardiovascular disease at baseline were excluded. Age was used as the time scale. All five risk factors considered were included in the models together with use of antihypertensive medications. A one-year landmark analysis was performed. Global estimates are presented. Confidence interval widths have not been adjusted for multiplicity and should not be used in place of hypothesis testing. To convert the values for non-HDL cholesterol from milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) to millimoles per liter (mmol/L), multiply by 0.02586.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Population-attributable fractions of risk factors for 10-year cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Models were computed using a one-year landmark analysis. (A) Aggregate global population-attributable fractions. (B) Population-attributable fractions for aggregate risk factors by geographic region. (C) Population-attributable fractions for single risk factors in direct regional comparison.

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