Importance: The average life expectancy has increased substantially in the past few decades in most industrialized countries; however, not all of the increased life expectancy is being spent in optimal health, especially among individuals with low socioeconomic status.
Objective: To quantify the associations between levels of cardiovascular health (CVH), estimated by the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) metrics, with life expectancy free of major chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, cancer, and dementia, in UK adults.
Design, setting, and participants: This cohort study included 135 199 adults in the UK Biobank study who were initially free of major chronic disease and had complete data on LE8 metrics. Data analyses were performed in August 2022.
Exposures: Cardiovascular health levels, as estimated by LE8 score. The LE8 score, which consists of 8 components: (1) diet, (2) physical activity, (3) tobacco/nicotine exposure, (4) sleep, (5) body mass index, (6) non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, (7) blood glucose, and (8) blood pressure. The CVH level was evaluated at baseline and categorized into low (LE8 score <50), moderate (LE8 score ≥50 but <80), and high (LE8 score ≥80) levels.
Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was the life expectancy free of 4 major chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, cancer, and dementia).
Results: Of the 135 199 adults (44.7% men; mean [SD] age, 55.4 [7.9] years) included in the study, a total of 4712, 48 955, and 6748 men had low, moderate, and high CVH levels, respectively, and the corresponding numbers for women were 3661, 52 192, and 18 931. At age 50 years, the estimated disease-free years were 21.5 (95% CI, 21.0-22.0), 25.5 (95% CI, 25.4-25.6), and 28.4 (95% CI, 27.8-29.0) for men with low, moderate, and high CVH levels, respectively; the corresponding estimated disease-free years at age 50 years for women were 24.2 (95% CI, 23.5-24.8), 30.5 (95% CI, 30.4-30.6), and 33.6 (95% CI, 33.1-34.0). Equivalently, men with moderate or high CVH levels lived on average 4.0 (95% CI, 3.4-4.5) or 6.9 (95% CI, 6.1-7.7) longer years free of chronic disease, respectively, at age 50 years, compared with men with low CVH levels. The corresponding longer years lived free of disease for women were 6.3 (95% CI, 5.6-7.0) or 9.4 (95% CI, 8.5-10.2). For participants with high CVH level, there was not a statistically significant difference in disease-free life expectancy between participants with low and other socioeconomic status.
Conclusions and relevance: In this cohort study, a high level of CVH, evaluated using the LE8 metrics, was associated with longer life expectancy free of major chronic diseases and may contribute to narrowing socioeconomic health inequalities in both men and women.