A DNA test for kids could predict their risk of having a heart attack years later.

Costing less than £40 a time, it is cheap enough to allow population-wide screening of children, researchers believe.

Doctors would then be able to teach them about reducing their risk of suffering a heart attack later in life and give medicines where appropriate.

The genomic risk score test, developed by Leicester and Cambridge universities, analyses 1.7million genetic variants to work out the chances of coronary heart disease.

Doctors currently work out a patient’s risk based on factors such as smoking and medical conditions.

But many of them who appear healthy still develop the disease.

Dr Aseem Malhotra, an NHS consultant cardiologist, said: “Any test that can predict with great accuracy the likelihood of developing heart disease decades before it develops could be groundbreaking.

“But only if it encourages healthy lifestyle changes at an early stage and not mass prescription of drugs that come with side-effects and benefit drug companies more than patients.”