Adding Depression, Anxiety Measures to CVD Prediction Model Has Little Impact
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Jan. 13, 2025 -- Inclusion of measures of depression and anxiety to the American Heart Association Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events (PREVENT) prediction model has little additional impact on risk classification of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study published online Jan. 13 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.
Shinya Nakada, M.P.H., from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and colleagues developed and internally validated risk prediction models using 60 and 40 percent, respectively, of the cohort data from the U.K. Biobank, to examine whether adding measures of anxiety and depression to the PREVENT predictors improves the prediction of CVD risk. CVD events were identified using hospital admission and death certificate data during a 10-year period. Incremental predictive values were determined by adding the mental health predictors to the PREVENT predictors using Harrell's C-indices.
The derivation set included 195,489 U.K. Biobank participants, and the validation set included 130,326. The researchers found that the inclusion of all mental health measures, except self-reported anxiety, in the validation set yielded a very modest increase in the C-index and specificity, while there was no change seen in sensitivity. Of the mental health predictors, the depressive symptom score yielded the greatest improvements in C-index and specificity (differences, 0.005 and 0.89 percent, respectively). Similar small improvements were seen for the depressive symptom score in female and male validation sets.
"Investigating broader mental health conditions using more established tools or diagnostic interview data could be the focus of future studies to further refine CVD risk classification," the authors write.
One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted January 2025
Read this next
Psilocybin Plus Psychotherapy Offers Lasting Benefit in Cancer, Depression
MONDAY, June 16, 2025 -- For cancer patients with a major depressive disorder, a single dose of psilocybin combined with psychological support can provide sustained relief for...
Parent-Reported Firearm Storage Poor Estimator of Teen Perceived Access
MONDAY, June 16, 2025 -- Parent-reported firearm storage seems to be a poor estimator of teen perceived firearm access, according to a study published online June 10 in JAMA...
CT Colonography Cost-Effective, Clinically Effective for CRC Screening
MONDAY, June 16, 2025 -- Computed tomography colonography (CTC) is cost-effective and clinically effective for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, according to a study published...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.