Abstract 63: Life’s Essential 8 and Life Expectancy Free of Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, and Dementia in Adults

Abstract

Background: Average life expectancy has increased substantially in recent decades in most developed countries; however, a sizable proportion of the increased life expectancy is spent in suboptimal health. Hypothesis: We investigated whether levels of cardiovascular health (CVH), estimated by the American Heart Association’s newly released Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) metrics, was associated with life expectancy free of major chronic disease including cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, cancer, and dementia, in UK adults. Methods: This study included 136,599 adults in the UK Biobank who were initially free of CVD, diabetes, cancer, and dementia and had complete data on LE8 metrics. Eight components were used to create the LE8 score, including diet, physical activity, tobacco/nicotine exposure, sleep, body mass index, non-high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure. Multistate life tables were applied to calculate the total life expectancy and years lived with and without diseases (CVD, diabetes, cancer, and dementia) according to adherence to the levels of CVH (poor, intermediate and ideal) in men and women. Results: Compared to those with poor CVH (referent), men and women with ideal CVH had an average 5.2 (95 % CI, 3.6 to 6.8) and 6.3 (95% CI, 4.9 to 7.9) more years of total life expectancy at age 50, respectively. The percentage of life expectancy free of chronic diseases out of total life expectancy was 75.9% for men and 83.4% for women who had ideal CVH, compared to 64.9% and 69.4%, respectively, for those with poor CVH. Moreover, we found that disparities in disease-free years related to low socioeconomic status were substantially narrowed by adhering to ideal CVH in both men and women. Conclusions: Adherence to ideal CVH, evaluated with the LE8 metrics, is associated with markedly extended life expectancy and more years lived free of major chronic diseases, as well as narrowing of socioeconomic health inequalities, in both men and women.