Recent research from Dr. Yang Peng at the University of Queensland’s Northside Clinical Unit has revealed significant findings about cardiovascular health assessment. The study analyzed data from 32,076 adults to evaluate the effectiveness of the American Heart Association’s tool known as Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) in predicting mortality risk.
The LE8 score is based on eight components: diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, body mass index (BMI), blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure. Dr. Peng’s research suggests that the current scoring system may not accurately reflect health risks associated with some of these metrics.
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
Dr. Peng explained that individuals with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 exhibited the lowest risk of mortality from all causes, including cardiovascular diseases. This challenges the existing LE8 scoring model, which assigns the highest score to individuals with a BMI below 25. The World Health Organization defines a healthy BMI range for adults as being between 18.5 and 24.9.
“This challenges the belief that lower is always better, particularly regarding weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol,” Dr. Peng stated. He emphasized that weight loss in mid-to-late life can indicate adverse health outcomes. Furthermore, he cautioned that setting aggressive blood pressure targets for older adults may inadvertently reduce blood flow to vital organs.
Improving Cardiovascular Health Metrics
The study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between 2005 and 2018, alongside records from the National Death Index. Dr. Peng noted that individuals with good cardiovascular health had a 58 percent lower risk of overall mortality and a 64 percent lower risk of death from heart disease when compared to those with poorer cardiovascular health.
However, when applying Dr. Peng’s new modeling approach, these risk reductions improved significantly, with reductions of up to 75 percent for overall mortality and 87 percent for heart disease deaths.
These findings underscore the need for ongoing improvements to cardiovascular health assessment tools and support targeted prevention strategies. The results of this important research were published in the International Journal of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention.
Dr. Peng’s work not only provides new insights into the effectiveness of cardiovascular health assessments but also calls for a reevaluation of how health metrics are scored, ensuring they cater to individual health needs and circumstances.
