This tool is only useful for assessing the risk of suffering a heart attack or dying due to coronary disease for people age 20 or older who do not already have heart disease and have not been diagnosed with diabetes. The Heart Disease Risk Assessment Tool is based on findings from a major research project called the “Framingham Heart Study,” in which three generations of men and women from Framingham, Massachusetts were evaluated to better understand the causes of cardiovascular disease. The score takes your personal risk factors into consideration and tells you what your chances are for having heart attack or dying in the next 10 years. A risk score of 10% means that 10 out of 100 people in that risk category will have a heart attack or die within 10 years. The lower your score, the better.