Ready-to-Eat Food Environments and Risk of Incident Heart Failure: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Abstract

Food environments have been linked to cardiovascular diseases; however, few studies have assessed the relationship between food environments and the risk of heart failure (HF). We aimed to evaluate the association between ready-to-eat food environments and incident HF at an individual level in a large prospective cohort. Exposure to ready-to-eat food environments, comprising pubs or bars, restaurants or cafeterias, and fast-food outlets, were individually measured as both proximity and density metrics. We also developed a composite ready-to-eat food environment density score by summing the densities of 3 types of food environments. Cox proportional analyses were applied to assess the associations of each single type and the composite food environments with HF risk. Closer proximity to and greater density of ready-to-eat food environments, particularly for pubs and bars and fast-food outlets (P<0.05 for both proximity and density metric) were associated with an elevated risk of incident HF. Compared with those with no exposure to composite ready-to-eat food environments, participants in the highest density score category had a 16% (8%-25%; P<0.0001) higher risk of HF. In addition, we found significant interactions of food environments with education, urbanicity, and density of physical activity facilities on HF risk (all Pinteraction<0.05); the ready-to-eat food environments-associated risk of HF was stronger among participants who were poorly educated, living in urban areas, and without physical activity facilities. Exposure to ready-to-eat food environments is associated with a higher risk of incident HF, suggesting the potential importance of minimizing unfavorable food environments in the prevention of HF.