Two health calculations can both give you an answer in years — yet describe very different aspects of your health.
PREVENT-Age translates estimated cardiovascular disease risk into an age-based measure that is easier to understand. It is derived from the American Heart Association PREVENT equations, which assess cardiovascular risk using information such as age, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, diabetes and kidney function.
If a person’s PREVENT-Age is higher than their chronological age, their cardiovascular risk profile corresponds to that expected at an older age. A lower PREVENT-Age indicates a more favorable cardiovascular risk profile.
Biological age calculations such as PhenoAge answer a different question.
PhenoAge combines chronological age with nine routine blood biomarkers to estimate Phenotypic Age. It was developed to capture differences in morbidity and mortality risk that are not explained by chronological age alone.
The distinction matters.
PREVENT-Age is specifically centered on cardiovascular risk. PhenoAge reflects a broader pattern derived from clinical biomarkers and mortality-related information. A person could therefore have a relatively favorable PREVENT-Age but a different PhenoAge result — or vice versa.
Neither number replaces a clinical assessment. Instead, each can provide a different perspective: one focused on future cardiovascular risk, the other on a broader biological-aging phenotype.
This is also why an age expressed by one health calculator should not automatically be compared with an age generated by another method. The meaning of the result depends on what the model was designed to measure and how it was developed.
