Can Genetic and Social Risk Scores Improve Cardiac Risk Prediction?

A growing body of research explores whether large datasets, based on genetics, health behaviors, and social circumstances, can be used to improve existing cardiac risk calculators. In this study, 400,000 people (mean age, 56; 95% white) without heart disease at baseline were identified from the U.K. Biobank. Researchers developed a “polysocial risk score” that incorporated information on social, behavioral, psychological, and other health factors. Then, the researchers examined the effect of adding a combined polysocial risk score and previously validated polygenic risk score (reflecting genetic susceptibility based on additive effects of genetic variants) to risk calculators from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the U.K.

Incorporati…