Comparison of the SCORE and Framingham Models in Calculating High Cardiovascular Risk for a Sample of Males within the 45-65 Age Range in Asturias, Spain

Abstract

Background: The Spanish Interdisciplinary Committee for Cardiovascular Prevention has recently drafted a consensus for adapting the European Cardiovascular Prevention Guide to the Spanish population, using SCORE as the risk-calculation method. This study is aimed as ascertaining the differences involved in changing over from the Framingham to the SCORE criterion in the classification of males within the high-risk group. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in primary care. A total of 379 males within the 45-65 age range, corresponding to four (4) groups from general practitioners from three healthcare centers in the Principality of Asturias. Main measurements: calculation of the cardiovascular risk and high-risk prevalence by the conventional Framingham method and according to SCORE. High-risk prevalence curve estimated by logic regression. Results: The high-risk prevalence according to the Framingham equation was 24% (CI95%=19.9-28.7) and was 17.9% (CI95%=14.3-22.3) for SCORE, the difference being statistically significant (p=0.02). The SCORE model shows lower prevalences among subjects under age 60 and higher for those over age 60. Among male smokers, SCORE shows lower prevalences among individuals under 58 years of age, the high-risk males with Framingham and low-risk with SCORE being younger, smokers and having lower average blood pressure figures and moderate cholesterol figures. Conclusions: On applying the SCORE model, we classify fewer males as high-risk, especially among those under 58 years of age who are smokers having moderate cholesterol figures than when the Framingham scale is used.