Porter Health
PREVENT Heart Age Calculator
Understanding Your Cardiovascular Age
Your heart age (also called "cardiovascular age" or "risk age") represents the age of a person with optimal risk factors who has the same 10-year cardiovascular disease risk as you do.
It's a simple, intuitive way to understand your cardiovascular health:
Heart Age Younger Than Actual Age
You have better-than-average cardiovascular health for your age
Heart Age Matches Actual Age
You have average cardiovascular health for your age
Heart Age Older Than Actual Age
Your cardiovascular risk is elevated—there's room for improvement
PREVENT Heart Age uses the latest American Heart Association equations (2025) to calculate your cardiovascular age:
Calculate Your 10-Year CVD Risk
First, the PREVENT calculator determines your absolute 10-year cardiovascular disease risk based on all your risk factors
Apply Sex-Specific Formula
Then we solve for the age that would produce that same risk level in a person with optimal risk factors:
Calculate Heart Age Excess
Heart Age Excess = Heart Age - Chronological Age
(Positive = heart is older; Negative = heart is younger)
Age Range: Heart age is capped at 30-79 years (the valid range for PREVENT equations). If your calculated heart age falls outside this range, it's reported as "<30" or ">79".
Heart age is calculated from the same risk factors used in PREVENT. All of these contribute to your cardiovascular age:
Good News: Most factors that influence heart age are modifiable! Changes to blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, smoking, and diabetes control can all help "turn back the clock" on your cardiovascular age.
Here's what different heart age results mean for your health:
Excellent Health
Heart >5 years youngerOutstanding cardiovascular health! You're doing better than average for your age. Keep up the excellent work maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviors.
Good Health
Heart 0-5 years youngerBetter-than-average cardiovascular health. Continue your healthy habits to maintain or improve your heart age.
Average Health
Heart age = Actual ageAverage cardiovascular health for your age. There's opportunity to improve through lifestyle changes and risk factor management.
Room for Improvement
Heart 0-5 years olderSmall improvements in modifiable risk factors can help reverse this. Focus on blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, physical activity, and smoking cessation.
Elevated Risk
Heart 5-10 years olderSignificant room for improvement in cardiovascular health. Work closely with your healthcare provider to optimize all modifiable risk factors.
High Risk
Heart >10 years olderSignificantly elevated cardiovascular risk. Comprehensive risk factor management is strongly recommended. Consider aggressive lifestyle intervention and medication optimization.
Research from the JAMA Cardiology study (2025) shows that most U.S. adults have hearts that are older than their chronological age:
U.S. Women (Average)
U.S. Men (Average)
Greatest Discordance: Black Men
Reflecting health disparities and higher burden of cardiovascular risk factors
Clinical Note: Among Porter Health alpha testers with complete data, the average heart age excess is -13.7 years (hearts are nearly 14 years younger on average). This reflects the health-conscious nature of our early adopter community and demonstrates the powerful impact of optimal risk factor control.
Your Porter Health dashboard uses heart age to make cardiovascular risk more intuitive and actionable:
Easy-to-Understand Risk: Instead of abstract percentages, heart age provides an intuitive measure of cardiovascular health
Track Progress Over Time: Watch your heart age improve as you optimize your risk factors
Motivational Tool: Seeing your heart "get younger" provides powerful motivation for lifestyle changes
Personalized Recommendations: Your action plan includes specific interventions to help lower your heart age
Primary Source
Krishnan V, Yano Y, Vu THT, et al. PREVENT Risk Age Equations and Population Distribution in US Adults. JAMA Cardiology. 2025;10(9):962-964.
DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2025.2427
Online Calculator (Reference Implementation)Related: PREVENT Equations
Khan SS, Matsushita K, Sang Y, et al. Development and Validation of the American Heart Association's PREVENT Equations. Circulation. 2024;149(6):430-449.
DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067626