Background: Numerous studies address the treatment of patients suffering from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, to date, no study has examined the population risk in Germany for the first occurrence of an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease based on established risk scores.
Methods: Using data from the NAKO cohort, we analysed all citizens aged 40 years and over in Germany who did not have a previously known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus. The risk was estimated and categorized on the basis of the ESC SCORE2 (40-69 years) and SCORE2-OP (≥70 years).
Results: We examined 142,101 citizens with a mean age of 54.14 (54.10-54.19) years. 51.94% were female. 20.72% smoked and the mean systolic blood pressure was 144.81 (143.02-146.59) mmHg. The mean SCORE2 and SCORE2-OP, respectively, was 5.35 (5.33-5.37) %. With regard to the resulting cardiovascular disease risk categories, 38.13% were classified as low-to-moderate risk, 48.23% as high risk, and 13.63% as very high risk. A comparison of these categories revealed a significant difference in the percentage of smokers, with 4.71% in the low-to-moderate risk category, 27.20% in the high risk category, and 42.55% in the very high risk category (p<0.001).
Conclusion: For the first time, we were able to estimate the population risk in Germany for the occurrence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases based on the SCORE2 and SCORE2-OP.
