Abstract MP41: Associations Of Neighborhood Food And Physical Activity Environments In Young Adulthood With Cardiovascular Health (CVH) In Midlife: The Coronary Artery Risk Development In Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

Abstract

Background: Adults who maintain high CVH profiles up to midlife have lower risk of several chronic diseases and better quality of life. However, the relationship between the access to different neighborhood resources in young adulthood and the maintenance of CVH into midlife remain understudied. Methods: We used data from 2,317 CARDIA participants. Measures of the neighborhood food and physical activity environment (Table) were linked to participant addresses collected at the baseline exam (1985-1986), when participants were 18-30 years old. CVH was measured at baseline and the year 30 follow-up exam. We examined associations of neighborhood food and physical activity environments with year 30 CVH scores (moderate vs. high and low vs. high) using multinomial logistic regression. Individual- and neighborhood-level covariates (Table) were adjusted for sequentially. Results: At baseline, 31% of participants had high and 5% had low CVH scores, respectively, whereas 11% had high and 34% had low CVH scores 30 years later. At year 30, compared to those with low CVH scores, participants with high CVH scores had better baseline neighborhood conditions (e.g., mean distance to nearest major park 4767m vs. 7043m, mean count of community and public physical activity facilities 50.70 vs. 43.57, mean percentage of food outlets that are supermarkets 0.75% vs. 0.44%) and were more likely to be female (70.99% vs. 59.21%) and White (86.64% vs. 39.14%). In adjusted models, participants who lived in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of supermarkets and more community and public physical activity facilities were less likely to have low CVH scores compared to high CVH scores (Table). Participants who lived in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of convenience stores and further from a major park were more likely to have low vs. high CVH scores. Conclusion: Improving access to physical activity and healthy food resources in young adulthood may have significant implications in longevity and quality of life in midlife.