CVD Risk Calculator (10-year Risk)
HealthEstimate 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk with the ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations, using age, sex, race, cholesterol, and blood pressure.
Age
years
Sex
Race (coefficient set)
Total Cholesterol
mg/dL
HDL Cholesterol
mg/dL
Systolic BP
mmHg
Treated for Hypertension
Current Smoker
Diabetes
10-Year ASCVD Risk
0%
Risk Category
โ
Not a substitute for clinical judgment. Statin and antihypertensive therapy decisions must weigh this estimate alongside your full medical history โ always consult a cardiologist or qualified healthcare provider before starting, stopping, or changing treatment.
What is a CVD Risk?
The CVD Risk Calculator estimates your 10-year risk of a first hard atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) event โ heart attack or stroke โ using the 2013 ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations. These equations combine age, sex, race, total and HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, hypertension treatment status, smoking status, and diabetes into a single natural-log-based formula validated across large, diverse patient cohorts.
Enter your details below to see your estimated 10-year risk percentage and risk category. For the older, points-based cardiovascular risk method, see the Framingham Risk Calculator; for a closer look at your lipid profile, see the Cholesterol Ratio Calculator.
How to use this CVD Risk calculator
- Enter your Age (valid range 40-79 for this formula).
- Select your Sex.
- Select your Race โ White/Other or African-American, the two published Pooled Cohort coefficient sets.
- Enter your Total Cholesterol and HDL Cholesterol in mg/dL.
- Enter your Systolic Blood Pressure in mmHg.
- Select whether you're Treated for Hypertension.
- Select your Current Smoker status and Diabetes status.
- Review your 10-Year ASCVD Risk and Risk Category, and discuss the result with a qualified cardiologist or physician.
Formula & Methodology
The Pooled Cohort Equations use natural-log-transformed inputs multiplied by sex- and race-specific coefficients, summed and compared against a baseline survival function: Risk (%) = [1 โ Sโ(10)^exp(ฮฃ(coefficients ร ln-transformed inputs) โ mean coefficient sum)] ร 100 Four separate coefficient sets exist โ White/Other Male, White/Other Female, African-American Male, and African-American Female โ each with its own baseline survival Sโ(10) and mean coefficient sum, reproduced from the official 2013 ACC/AHA guideline appendix (Goff DC Jr, et al. Circulation. 2014;129(25 Suppl 2):S49-73). Worked example: A 55-year-old White/Other male, non-smoker, non-diabetic, untreated systolic BP of 130 mmHg, total cholesterol 200 mg/dL, and HDL 50 mg/dL produces a 10-year ASCVD risk in the intermediate range (7.5%-20%) โ illustrating how several moderate risk factors combine to shift someone out of the low-risk category even without any single extreme value.
Frequently Asked Questions
This calculator implements the 2013 ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations, the guideline-recommended method for estimating 10-year risk of a first hard atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) event โ heart attack or stroke. It uses sex- and race-specific natural-log coefficients derived from large, diverse cohort studies.
The Pooled Cohort Equations used here replaced the older Framingham general cardiovascular risk score in most US guidelines because they were derived from more racially and geographically diverse cohorts. For the original 1998/2008 Framingham points-based approach, see the separate [Framingham Risk Calculator](/framingham-risk-calculator/).
The Pooled Cohort Equations publish two coefficient sets โ one validated for White/Other populations and one for African-American populations โ because risk relationships with cholesterol and blood pressure differed measurably between these cohorts in the original derivation studies. No other race-specific coefficient sets have been published by the ACC/AHA.
Following the 2018 ACC/AHA/Multisociety Cholesterol Guideline, a 10-year risk under 5% is considered low, 5% to under 7.5% is borderline, 7.5% to under 20% is intermediate, and 20% or higher is high risk. These bands are commonly used to help guide statin therapy discussions.
The Pooled Cohort Equations use separate coefficients for treated versus untreated systolic blood pressure because antihypertensive medication changes the relationship between measured blood pressure and underlying cardiovascular risk. Selecting the correct treatment status is essential for an accurate estimate.
The Pooled Cohort Equations were validated for ages 40 to 79, so this calculator constrains age to that range internally. Risk estimation tools for younger adults typically rely on different, lifetime-risk-oriented approaches rather than the 10-year Pooled Cohort model.
No โ a low 10-year estimate does not rule out cardiovascular risk over a longer time horizon, especially for younger adults with several risk factors. It simply reflects the modeled probability of an event within the next decade based on your current inputs, not a lifetime guarantee.
No โ this tool is strictly for informational and educational purposes and reproduces a published population-level formula. Decisions about statins, blood pressure medication, or further cardiac testing directly affect your health and must always be made with a qualified cardiologist or physician who knows your complete history.
Age typically has the largest single effect because risk rises steeply with each additional decade of life in the underlying equations, followed by systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol. Smoking status also produces a substantial jump in estimated risk independent of the other factors.
Diabetes adds a fixed positive coefficient in all four sex/race equations, reflecting its well-established independent contribution to atherosclerotic risk beyond cholesterol and blood pressure alone. The exact point impact varies slightly by which of the four coefficient sets applies to you.
The [Framingham Risk Calculator](/framingham-risk-calculator/) implements the older, points-based D'Agostino 2008 general cardiovascular risk profile, while this calculator implements the newer, continuous-formula 2013 ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations. Both estimate related but distinct 10-year cardiovascular outcomes and can give different results for the same person.
Total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol, the two lipid inputs used here, are also the building blocks of the ratio computed by the [Cholesterol Ratio Calculator](/cholesterol-ratio-calculator/). Reviewing your ratio alongside your ASCVD risk estimate can give useful additional context on your lipid profile.
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