Predicting Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke : The FINRISK Calculator

• National risk function is a useful tool to assess total risk for cardiovascular diseases.

The FINRISK risk calculator predicts 10-year risk for coronary heart disease, stroke incidence, and their combination. The model is based on 10-year cohort follow-up from 3 different cohorts in 1982, 1987, and 1992 from a random population sample in 3 areas in Finland. Coronary heart disease, stroke, and their combination are predicted by smoking, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, diabetes, and family history. The Internet-based calculator is commonly used in Finland in health services to assess the need for hypertension and hypercholesterolemia treatment and is used also in patients' counseling.