Association of food environment and cardiovascular mortality

Khushali Jhaveri,Devika Kir,Suveen Angraal,Anand Krishnan,Kai Chen

doi:10.12688/f1000research.22986.1

Abstract

Background: The association between healthy dietary habits and cardiovascular health is well established; however, it is unknown whether access to healthy and sustainable food sources correlates with better cardiovascular mortality. Methods: County-level data on Food Environment Index (FEI) for 2014 was retrieved from the County Health Rankings dataset. County-level data on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) mortality was obtained from the death registry files of the National Vital Statistics System. We used a linear regression model to assess the association between FEI and CVD mortality after adjusting for sex and race distributions, urban-rural distribution and median household income. Results: Data were available for 3069 counties. The mean FEI was 7.0 (SD, 1.2) and mean CVD mortality (per 100,000 population) was 252.7 (95% CI, 247.1-258.3) across the United States in 2014. There was a significant inverse association between FEI and adjusted CVD mortality (P <0.001). Every unit increase in FEI corresponded to a decline in CVD mortality of 19.1 per 100,000 population. Conclusions: Higher FEI correlates with reduced CVD mortality. Improving access to healthy sustainable food sources may help decrease cardiovascular mortality.

Highlights

In the United States, approximately 23.5 million Americans lack access to sustainable food sources like supermarkets[1]
With an extremely high burden of cardiovascular mortality in the United States[4], quantifying the association between food environment and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) mortality rates at the national level can help appraise the disparity in food environment across the United States and can give critical information on how it relates to CVD mortality rates
Food Environment Index (FEI) was inversely associated with CVD mortality rate, with a 19.1% decrease in CVD mortality rate for every unit increase in FEI (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

In the United States, approximately 23.5 million Americans lack access to sustainable food sources like supermarkets[1]. This disparity in food environment has been shown to markedly affect the cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors in a population[2]. With an extremely high burden of cardiovascular mortality in the United States[4], quantifying the association between food environment and CVD mortality rates at the national level can help appraise the disparity in food environment across the United States and can give critical information on how it relates to CVD mortality rates.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion