Abstract TP174: Life’s Simple 7 in Young, Mid and Older aged Australians

Abstract

Background: There is concern about the rising stroke incidence in younger and middle aged people. We used the AHA’s Life’s Simple 7 index to profile modifiable stroke risk factors by age. Methods: Data were from the 2014-15 Australian Health Survey, a cross-sectional population-based survey. We categorized people as younger (>20 to <45 years), middle (≥45 to <65 years) and older (≥65 years) ages. Smoking, diet, BMI, physical activity, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose were classified into poor (score=0), intermediate (score=1) and ideal (score=2). We classified people has having a low (0 to 4) or high (5 to 7) number of ideal items. Sex-specific prevalence ratios (PR) for ideal risk factors by age group were calculated with Poisson regression with replicate weights applied. The prevalence of ideal risk factors were ranked for each age group. Results: There were 15,565 households that participated (85% eligible). In men, the middle (OR 0.28 95% CI 0.20, 0.41) group had the same lower prevalence of high items as the older group (PR 0.21 95% CI 0.12, 0.38) compared to the younger group. This pattern was evident for ideal BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. In women, the middle (PR 0.32 95% CI 0.26, 0.38) and older (PR 0.15 95% CI 0.10, 0.23) groups had a lower prevalence of high ideal scores than the younger group. The middle (PR 0.64 95% CI 0.57, 0.73) and older (PR 0.56 95% CI 0.49, 0.65) aged women had the same lower prevalence of ideaI BMI compared to the younger group. The older men (PR 2.77 95% CI 1.13, 6.75) and women (PR 2.32 95% CI 1.23, 4.04) more often had ideal diet than the younger group. In men, the 3 worst risk factors were diet, BMI and physical activity across all ages. In women, the 3 worst risk factors were diet, physical activity and BMI for younger and middle groups but diet, physical activity and blood pressure for the older group. Conclusion: Middle aged men have a risk factor profile comparable to older aged men, which may explain the rising or plateauing of stroke incidence in this group. Irrespective of age, the worst risk factors were diet, BMI and physical activity. Investment in whole of population, rather than age specific, primary stroke prevention strategies addressing these risk factors should be our priority.