"The now well-established risk factor concept, fundamental to prevention of CVD, originated from the Framingham study," commented Shanthi Mendis, MD, of the World Health Organization. "It generated seminal findings such as the effects of tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, obesity, raised blood cholesterol, raised blood pressure, and diabetes on CVD. When these findings were first published, these were novel cardiovascular risk factors, now they are the major focus for global and national prevention efforts for reducing the burden of CVD and other major noncommunicable diseases. The Framingham Heart Study has also been in the forefront of the development of cardiovascular risk prediction equations for assessment of absolute risk."

The true global impact of the Framingham Heart Study, according to Henry Greenberg, MD, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY, and Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, is whether prevention works. "The final verdict on the efficacy and relevance of the Framingham Heart Study is the outcome. Altering behavioral or cultural or political determinants of risk does reduce the societal burden of CVD. In the United States, though lacking a top-down approach to public health, the dramatic fall in CVD mortality in the early 1960s when little but blood pressure control was available speaks to this. During the ensuing 40 years, about half of the 50% fall in CVD mortality is attributable to prevention and risk factor modification, the legacy of the Framingham Heart Study."

Source: Elsevier Health Sciences