Recently the AHA (American Heart Association) reported a study on the Life’s Essential 8 (LE 8) and its association with both life expectancy and health span free of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (cvd), cancer, diabetes and dementia.
Ths study was performed in the UK and included more than 135,000 adults with a mean age of 55. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine (Wang et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(4):340-349. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.0015) and summarized in Medscape.
The AHA Essential Life’s Essential 8 score includes:
- Not smoking;
- Regular physical activity;
- Healthy weight;
- Healthy diet;
- Healthy sleep (defined as an average of 7-9 hours nightly);
- Blood pressure in a healthy range;
- Blood glucose in a healthy range; and
- LDL (bad) cholesterol in a healthy range.
In a large cohort study of 135199 adults from the UK Biobank researchers investigated the association of cardiovascular (cv) health levels (as estimated by the AHA Essential Life’s Essential 8 score) with life expectancy free of major disease.
The study population was divided into three groups: those with low, moderate and high LE 8 scores, indicating low, moderate and high cv health. The average life expectancy free of chronic disease was estimated (at age 50) to be approximately 25 additional years in men and 30 in women. There were large differences between groups: men with high cv health scores had an additional 7 years (in women 9.5) of life expectancy free of chronic disease compared with those with lower scores. The number of years lived with chronic disease was reduced in those with high cv health scores. They had fewer years living with the chronic diseases as well as more years free of chronic diseases. The gain in life expectancy free of chronic disease was similar across all socioeconomic layers.
So, lifestyle factors are of great importance in extending health span and years free of chronic disease. A healthy lifestyle not only extends life expectancy but also extends years of health free of chronic disease in all socioeconomic groups.
