Everybody could take cholesterol and blood pressure pills after the age of 55, according to a controversial proposal from a British professor.
Professor Sir Nicholas Wald, of Queen Mary College, London, calls this "age screening".
He argues that 84 per cent of people over the age of 55 need treatment to prevent heart disease – and that there is no point in trying to screen to identify those at risk.
Professor Wald published his idea in the journal PLoS One yesterday.
He said treating age as the key factor would save the need for blood tests and medical examinations.
He said: "Prevention is better than measurement Identifying people at high risk of cardiovascular disease needs to be greatly simplified, enabling people to obtain easy access to preventive treatment from nurses and pharmacists as well as from doctors.
"Offering appropriate preventive treatment to everyone aged 55 and over in England and Wales could prevent over 100,000 heart attacks and strokes every year."
But experts said using age would mean many people under the age of 55 would miss out on treatment.
Natasha Stewart, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "Vitally it would miss younger people in higher risk groups such as those with a family history of heart disease, people of South Asian origin and people with diabetes.
“Recognising and treating other risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure in people aged 40 to 55 could prevent them from developing heart and circulatory disease in the first place, which is the best outcome for them and makes economic sense for the NHS too.”
Screening for Future Cardiovascular Disease Using Age Alone Compared with Multiple Risk Factors and Age. Nicholas J. Wald, Mark Simmonds, Joan K. Morris. PloS ONE May 4 2011. Volume 6; Issue 4:e18742
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