Heart age test

Apparently a NHS test shows that almost 80 per cent of people have a heart age higher than their real age.  The Guardian claims that "doctors call figures for England alarming and urge people to adopt healthier lifestyles".

Now, we need to think about this.  Clearly doctors will already be aware of the rates of heart attacks and strokes in England.  These current rates will presumably be a reflection of peoples' cardiovascular health.  So the test results don't indicate the population of England's cardiovascular health is worse than was thought -- we already can infer this from the rate of heart attacks and strokes. If the Guardian is correct and these doctors are calling these figures alarming, then they simply are not understanding this very simple fact. I think this in itself is cause for concern since we generally trust our doctor's advice on health issues.

A word about the actual test.  I completed it and it said my heart is 3 years older than my actual age.  I know my systolic (the top figure) blood pressure, which is 131, but I don't know my cholesterol figures, so they just applied some average.

Altering my weight had no effect on my result.  Reducing my systolic BP -- presumably to less than 120 -- made my heart 2 years older rather than the current 3.  Putting in my old address made my heart 4 years older.  Reducing my cholesterol had the only significant effect bringing my heart age to the same as my actual age.  However, I never provided any cholesterol figures, they're just using some average.

I'm surmising that the calculation depends mostly on my sex, where I live, and the average cholesterol figures of some subset of the population.  Apart from BP, no relevant questions were asked that might have shed light on how healthy my heart is.  For example, questions such as whether I get breathless climbing a flight of stairs, what my resting pulse rate is etc, were not asked.

Here a brief digression is called for. Until 3 years ago I had lived my entire life in a place in the north-east of England called Teesside.  Stockton centre in Teesside has a life expectancy of 64 for men.  I lived approximately 10 minutes walk away from the centre, and given I am now in my 50's (although looking very young for my age) that suggests I only have a few years left!  However, on digging a bit deeper, it seems that men in this area have such a low life expectancy due to their lifestyles; namely heavy smoking, binge drinking, eating junk foods, drug taking etc.  Suffice to say that many people who live in this area have a lifestyle which is, and was, very far removed from my own.  Hence, there's no reason why I should think that such a low life expectancy will be applicable to my own particular case.  Specific questions regarding my specific lifestyle would need to be asked before any reasonable life expectancy can be surmised.

I think precisely the same applies for this NHS test.  They are simply taking averages and are not asking a sufficient number of relevant questions specific to the individual.  I think it is far more sensible to not take any notice of this test, but to judge for oneself how healthy one's heart is e.g how easily one gets out of breath with specific activities.