Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Related to Cardiovascular Risk among Young Adults

Abstract

PURPOSE: Participation in healthy lifetsyle behaviors is associated with decreased risk for CVD across the lifecourse. Examining clustering of healthy lifestyle behaviors among young adults at increased risk due to elevated BMI could provide insight into CVD preventive interventions that could be implemented during this developmental transition. METHODS: Young adults (ages18-35) enrolled in a healthy body weight clinical trial (n=210; % female=79.5%; M age=22.1 +3.9; M BMI=31.4+3.7) completed surveys: demographics, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Population Assessment on Tobacco and Health (PATH) questions. Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors included: 1) meeting guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA; >150 minutes); 2) never cigarette user 3) never e-cigarette user; 4) low sedentary behavior (<4 hours/day). Participants were scored for the presence of up to 4 healthy lifestyle behaviors. RESULTS: Participants reported engaging in 122.7±103.6 minutes/week of MVPA and 8.5±3.4 hours/day of sedentary behavior. Approximately 6.2% met criteria for MVPA, 60.9% reported never smoking cigarettes, 83.2% reported never using e-cigarettes, and 17.6% had low sedentary behavior time. In terms of clustering of healthy lifestyle behaviors, 11.0%, 29.9%, 50.5%, 7.6%, 1.1% had 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 healthy behaviors, respectively. The distribution of number of health behaviors varied little by age, gender or BMI status (overweight vs. obese). CONCLUSIONS: Young adults with elevated BMIs are at increased risk for CVD, given their weight status. Results indicate that few were engaging in the maximum number of recommended health behaviors to mitigate risk. Understanding healthy lifestyle and CVD risk behavior is essential for both prevention and intervention efforts. Recommendations are for future studies to assess health behaviors to identify young adults at risk such that targeted multi behavior interventions can be implemented. Funding source: NIH/NIDDK #DK100916