What are 'risk factors'?
Last updated: Thursday, February 11, 2010 PrintWay back in the 1960s the Framingham study in the USA introduced the idea of risk factors.
"Risk factors" was an inclusive term referring to all individual, or even social factors, which were associated with a greater likelihood of developing coronary artery disease (CAD).
Raised total cholesterol, smoking and raised blood pressure were initially linked to the increasing incidence of CAD.
Now, 40 years later, these still remain the major risk factors but, in the meantime, more than 300 other associations have been found between biochemical, clinical, social and demographic variables and the development of CAD.
Risk factors can be conveniently divided into the following groups:
- biological
- inherited
- behavioural
- secondary to disease
- emotion/stress
(The Heart and Stroke Foundation/Health24, December 2008)
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