Despite the extensive literature on individual risk factors, such as diet, physical activity, body weight, smoking habits, and mental health characteristics, the literature on different lifestyle and mental health patterns, their evolution over time, and how these factors interact and synergistically affect cardiovascular health is sparse. The need for longitudinally studying these characteristics is currently being highlighted by the limited studies with repeated measurements. This review summarizes the literature concerning lifestyle and psychological characteristics, both well-studied (e.g., diet, physical activity, smoking habits, chronic stress and depression), as well as newly proposed characteristics (e.g., sleep habits, positive psychology characteristics) and their longitudinal association with cardiovascular disease. Studies with data on lifelong characteristics are not always comparable and have found mixed results, especially concerning changes in characteristics such as quitting smoking or starting to be physically active later in life. Therefore, further research is warranted for the implementation of future preventive strategies for cardiovascular disease.
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