How Healthy Lifestyle and Socioeconomic Status Interact with CV Risk

Although unhealthy lifestyles apparently mediate only a small proportion of socioeconomic inequity in health, a healthy lifestyle remains the foundation of CVD prevention.

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher total mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, and CVD events. To determine whether lifestyle factors mediate these associations, investigators used data from two distinct population-based cohorts: 44,462 adults in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and 399,537 adults in the UK Biobank.

SES was stratified by family income, occupation/employment status, education, and, in the U.S., health insurance. Scores were developed for lifestyles; a healthy lifestyle involved never smoking, low alcohol consumption, physical activity (top tertile), and higher dietary quality. Over a mean follow-up of 11 years, 8906 deaths occurred in NHANES and 22,309 dea…

Reviewing Author

Karol E. Watson, MD, PhD, FACC

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardBoehringer Ingelheim; Amgen; Novartis; Lilly; Amarin

Speaker’s BureauBoehringer Ingelheim

Grant/Research SupportNIH

Editorial BoardsCirculation (Associate Editor)