Maintaining healthy indicators can extend life! Tongji Medical College Research

There are seven indicators for assessing cardiovascular health: smoking status, body mass index, physical activity, diet, total cholesterol, blood pressure and fasting blood sugar.

Recently, scholars from Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology published a study stating that these seven indicators can assess the risk of cardiovascular disease throughout life. The more health indicators one has, the longer his life expectancy.

The study evaluated 82,349, 64,279, and 33,887 residents to assess the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease at the index age of 35, 45, and 55 years. 0-2, 3-4, and 5-7 ideal cardiovascular indicators were classified as low, moderate, and high cardiovascular health status, respectively.

Changes in cardiovascular health indicators were assessed from 2006/2007 to 2010/2011.

At age 35, age-adjusted CVD incidence and lifetime risk increased as a number of markers of ideal cardiovascular health decreased.

For residents without ideal cardiovascular health indicators, the age-adjusted incidence of cardiovascular disease was 12.92/1000 person-years, and the incidences of myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure were 2.67, 8.09, and 2.60/1000 person-years, respectively.

Among residents with ≥6 ideal cardiovascular health indicators, the age-adjusted incidence of cardiovascular disease was 3.02/1000 person-years, and the age-adjusted incidences of myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure were 0.41, 2.00, and 0.84/1000 person-years, respectively.

The lifetime risk of developing cardiovascular disease decreases significantly from low to high cardiovascular health status.

The highest lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease for residents aged 35, 45 and 55 without ideal cardiovascular health indicators was 44.3%, 42.1% and 39.4%, respectively.

Compared with residents without ideal cardiovascular health indicators, those with >3 ideal cardiovascular health indicators had a significantly lower lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study also found that improvements or deteriorations in cardiovascular health status were associated with age-adjusted cardiovascular disease event rates and lifetime risk.

A total of 52,627 residents in the study experienced changes in cardiovascular health status. From 2006/2007 to 2010/2011, 20.5% (n=10,797) of residents improved their cardiovascular health status, mainly from low to moderate (13.7%) and from moderate to high (5.8%), while only 1.0% of participants improved from low to high.

In contrast, the cardiovascular health status of 11,005 residents (20.9%) deteriorated, 14.9% changed from moderate to poor, and 0.9% and 5.1% changed from high to low and moderate, respectively.

More than half (58.6%) of the residents maintained the same cardiovascular health status (22.9% were in low status, 32.7% were in medium status, and 3.0% were in high status).

Residents who maintained poor cardiovascular health had the highest age-adjusted cardiovascular disease incidence (11.40, 12.51, and 16.04 per 1,000 person-years at ages 35, 45, and 55, respectively).

The age-adjusted incidence of cardiovascular disease was lowest among subjects in a consistently high cardiovascular health status (2.70, 3.01, and 4.04 per 1000 person-years at 35, 45, and 55 years, respectively).

Improvements in cardiovascular health status reduce age-adjusted cardiovascular disease incidence compared with the corresponding stable cardiovascular health status.

The age-adjusted incidence rates of cardiovascular disease at age 35 years for participants whose cardiovascular health status ranged from low to moderate and from low to high were 7.81 and 5.02 per 1000 person-years, respectively, which were lower than those for subjects whose status was always low (11.40 per 1000 person-years).

At age 35, improvements in cardiovascular health status from low to moderate (37.6%) or from low to high (24.4%) were associated with a lower lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease compared with a persistently low status (44.6%).

A worsening of cardiovascular health from moderate to poor (40.4%) was associated with a higher lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, whereas an improvement from moderate to high cardiovascular health was associated with a lower lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease (19.7%), compared with a persistent moderate state (29.7%).

Participants who consistently maintained high cardiovascular health had the lowest lifetime risk between the ages of 35 and 95 (14.7%), whereas a change from high to moderate or low status significantly increased the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease (22.0% and 28.6%, respectively).

At age 45 or 55 years, the association between changes in cardiovascular health status and lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease was similar to that at age 35 years.

Improved cardiovascular health may also extend the life span free of cardiovascular disease, the study found.

At the age of 35, the life expectancy free from cardiovascular disease was 38.36, 45.00 and 50.34 years for subjects with low, moderate and high cardiovascular health status, respectively.

The improvement in cardiovascular health status extended the life expectancy without cardiovascular disease: from low to medium, from low to high, and from medium to high, the life expectancy without cardiovascular disease was 41.70 years, 43.40 years, and 47.26 years, respectively.

Conversely, worsening cardiovascular health shortened life expectancy: from moderate to low, from high to moderate, and from high to low, the life expectancy without cardiovascular disease was 43.00, 48.31, and 43.44 years, respectively.

The life expectancy patterns at ages 45 and 55 are similar to those at age 35.

Source: China Circulation Magazine