Lifetime risk of a cardiovascular event . . .

Is your lifetime risk of a cardiovascular event over 50%? A study based on a quarter of a million Spanish employees shows how hard it can be to give an answer (European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2015, doi:10.1177/2047487315579616). In this cohort, short and long term risk was several times lower when the QRISK score (developed in UK primary care) was used compared with the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association calculator. And because the different scores were stratified by differing age groups and ethnic categories (ironically Hispanic means different things in Spain and the US), it’s nigh on impossible to get to a lifetime risk. Let everyone keep active, eat fruit, avoid tobacco, and take a statin if they are still worried, says Minerva. Scores are bores and often mislead.

“You don’t know which bits to believe,” sums up the election season. It also appears in the title of a qualitative study of parents’ …