Performance of the non-laboratory based 2019 WHO cardiovascular disease risk prediction chart in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction charts in 2019 to cover 21 global regions. We aimed to assess the performance of an updated non-lab-based risk chart for people with normoglycaemia, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), and diabetes in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from six WHO STEPS surveys conducted in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa between 2012 and 2017. We included 9857 participants aged 40-69 years with no CVD history. The agreement between lab- and non-lab-based charts was assessed using Bland-Altman plots and Cohen's kappa. The median age of the participants was 50 years (25-75th percentile 44-57). The pooled median 10-year CVD risk was 3 % (25-75th percentile 2-5) using either chart. According to the estimation, 7.5 % and 8.4 % of the participants showed an estimated CVD risk ≥10 % using the non-lab-based chart or the lab-based chart, respectively. The concordance between the two charts was 91.3 %. The non-lab-based chart underestimated the CVD risk in 57.6 % of people with diabetes. In the Bland-Altman plots, the limits of agreement between the two charts were widest among people with diabetes (-0.57-7.54) compared to IFG (-1.75-1.22) and normoglycaemia (-1.74-1.06). Kappa values of 0.79 (substantial agreement), 0.78 (substantial agreement), and 0.43 (moderate agreement) were obtained among people with normoglycaemia, IFG, and diabetes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Given limited healthcare resources, the updated non-lab-based chart is suitable for CVD risk estimation in the general population without diabetes. Lab-based risk estimation is suitable for individuals with diabetes to avoid risk underestimation.