1.5m wrongly told they have heart disease

Heart disease medication is being massively over-prescribed with thousands of people being wrongly told that they are in danger of developing cardiovascular problems, according to a study.

A new and sophisticated approach to calculating risk has shed radical new light on the issue. A British Medical Journal study says that there are flaws in the traditional method and suggests that current estimates of the number of people in danger of the disease are 1.5 million too high.

Using the new test, the BMJ estimated that the number of people at risk had been overpredicted by 35 per cent.Consequently, many patients have likely been prescribed unnecessarily anti-cholesterol drug statins, inflating the annual £2 billion bill to the NHS.

The study prompted fears that the wrong type of people were being targeted for treatment with its discovery that white middle-aged men had a lower risk than previously thought and women from poorer backgrounds had a significantly higher risk.

It also found that one in three women in their 60s are at risk of heart disease. That figure was previously thought to be one in four.

Julia Hippisley-Cox, lead author of the study, told The Guardian: “We are potentially missing the right people for treatment. “If we use this new score it would increase treatment to deprived areas and especially to women. They are being under-treated across the board.”

By: Fiona Hamilton and Nigel Hawkes
Article Source: Times Online