Prevention & lipidsDiagnostic or prognostic study

Sex-specific cardiovascular disease risk prediction using statistical learning and explainable artificial intelligence: the HUNT Study

Eur J Prev CardiolPublished

  • Prognostic model development and validation study
  • random training/test split
  • sex-specific models

Authors' conclusion

By employing statistical learning and incorporating sex-specific risk factors, we propose improved risk prediction models for CVD in males.

Study context

Population
Adults aged 40–79 years without prior cardiovascular disease (CVD), HUNT Study (Norway)
Participants
31,946 adults
Comparison
XGBoost and logistic regression models vs NORRISK 2 and SCORE2
Outcome
Prediction of 10-year CVD risk (ROC-AUC and PR-AUC on the test set)
Follow-up
10 years

Performance

As reported in the abstract

CVD risk prediction, males
XGBoost vs NORRISK 2 · males; PR-AUC increase 12%
increase in ROC-AUC 0.013 unit
XGBoost vs SCORE2 · males; PR-AUC increase 11%
increase in ROC-AUC 0.012 unit

Further findings

Predictors

All traditional NORRISK 2 and SCORE2 risk factors were important predictors for males, but not for females; potential new risk predictors identified

Age- and sex-specific intervention thresholds

Improved sensitivity vs NORRISK 2-suggested thresholds

Original publication

Sex-specific cardiovascular disease risk prediction using statistical learning and explainable artificial intelligence: the HUNT Study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 10 March 2025. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf135

Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it