With online risk calculators such as the American Diabetes Association’s Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test, you plug in information such as your age, health history, and health habits, and receive estimates of your risk factors for developing a disease.
But in 2015, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that four risk assessment tools, including one developed by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, overstated the risk of events such as heart attacks in men and women. A fifth overestimated those risks in men but underestimated them in women.
Risk calculators are only as good as the information you enter. If you put in your blood pressure level incorrectly, for example, the calculator’s risk assessment will be off.
Despite the drawbacks, risk calculators “can give you a very good idea of where you stand relative to other people your age. You and your physician can then discuss your results and decide what, if anything, to do to lower your risk.
“No risk calculator is perfect. For one thing, not all calculators take the same risk factors into consideration, and some look at fewer than others. “The more factors involved, the more accurate the risk assessment is".