Imai Y, Tanaka SM, Satoh M, et al. - In this study, the magnitude and also the number of cardiovascular risk factors were found to be progressively linked with elevated lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease deaths even in persons in early adulthood who tended to have low short‐term risk. Findings imply that the degree of established cardiovascular risk factors can be converted into lifetime risk.

• A Japanese cohort study was conducted to analyze pooled individual data from the Evidence for Cardiovascular Prevention from Observational Cohorts; among 41,002 Japanese men and women with 537,126 person‐years of follow‐up, the remaining lifetime risk of cardiovascular death was assessed.

• A lower lifetime risk, at the index‐age of 45 years, was observed for participants with optimal risk factors (total cholesterol <4.65 mmol/L, systolic BP <120 mm Hg, diastolic BP <80 mm Hg, absence of diabetes, and absence of smoking habit) vs the highest risk profile of ≥2 risk factors (6.8% vs 19.4% for males and 6.9% vs 15.4% for females).