Healthy lifestyle status, antihypertensive treatment and the risk of heart failure among Finnish men and women

Healthy lifestyle, statin, and mortality in people with high CVD risk: A nationwide population-based cohort study

Objective

To examine the joint association of healthy lifestyles and statin use with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in high-risk individuals, and evaluate the survival benefits by life expectancy.

Methods

During 2015-2021, participants aged 35-75 years were recruited by the China Health Evaluation And risk Reduction through nationwide Teamwork. Based on number of healthy lifestyles related to smoking, alcohol drinking, physical activity, and diet, we categorized them into: very healthy (3-4), healthy (2), and unhealthy (0-1). Statin use was determined by self-report taking statin in last two weeks.

Results

Among the 265,209 included participants at high risk, 6979 deaths were observed, including 3236 CVD deaths during a median 3.6 years of follow-up. Individuals taking statin and with a very healthy lifestyle had the lowest risk of all-cause (HR: 0.70; 95 %CI: 0.57-0.87) and cardiovascular mortality (0.56; 0.40-0.79), compared with statin non-users with an unhealthy lifestyle. High-risk participants taking statin and with a very healthy lifestyle had the highest years of life gained (5.90 years at 35-year-old [4.14-7.67; P < 0.001]) compared with statin non-users with an unhealthy lifestyle among high-risk people. And their life expectancy was comparable with those without high risk but with a very healthy lifestyle (4.49 vs. 4.68 years).

Conclusion

The combination of preventive medication and multiple healthy lifestyles was associated with lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and largest survival benefits. Integrated strategy to improve long-term health for high-risk people was urgently needed.

Importance of healthy lifestyle factors and ideal cardiovascular health metrics for risk of heart failure in Chinese adults

BACKGROUND

The relative importance of healthy lifestyle factors and cardiovascular health metrics for the risk of heart failure is uncertain in Chinese populations. We aimed to compare the strength of associations between healthy lifestyle factors and ideal cardiovascular health metrics in the risk of heart failure in middle-aged Chinese adults.

METHODS

A healthy lifestyle score (HLS) was constructed using smoking, drinking, physical activity, diet, body mass index and waist circumference, and compared with a more comprehensive set of metrics that included cardiovascular-disease risk biomarkers (blood pressure, blood glucose and blood lipids) in addition to the HLS. This broader set of factors [called 'ideal cardiovascular health metrics' (ICVHMs)] was evaluated in 487 197 participants in the China Kadoorie Biobank.

RESULTS

A total of 4208 incident cases of heart failure were recorded during a median follow-up of 10 years. Both HLS [hazard ratio (HR), 0.88; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.85, 0.91] and ICVHMs (0.87: 0.84, 0.89) were inversely associated with risk of heart failure (P < 0.001 for linear trend). Compared with participants with 0-1 HLS, the multivariable-adjusted HR of those with 4-5 HLS was 0.68 (0.59, 0.77). Compared with participants with 0-2 ICVHMs, the adjusted HR (95% CIs) of those who had 7-8 ICVHMs was 0.47 (0.36, 0.60). ICVHMs were more strongly predictive of risk of heart failure (area under curve, 0.61 vs 0.58, P < 0.001) than healthy lifestyle factors alone.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher levels of healthy lifestyle factors and ICVHMs were each inversely associated with heart failure, and lifestyle factors combined with cardiometabolic factors improved the prediction of heart failure compared with healthy lifestyle factors alone.

Association of Lifestyle Factors and Antihypertensive Medication Use With Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Adults With Hypertension in China

IMPORTANCE

The joint association of antihypertensive medication use and healthy lifestyle with mortality among individuals with hypertension is unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association of lifestyle factors combined with antihypertensive medication use, as well as changes in lifestyle, with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among individuals with hypertension.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This cohort study used data from the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort, a long-term, prospective cohort including employees at a manufacturer in China, with baseline from 2008 to 2010. Participants with hypertension were followed up for a median (IQR) of 7.3 (5.7-10.3) years, ending in 2018. Data were analyzed from February to April 2021.

EXPOSURES

Lifestyle factors, including body mass index, smoking status, diet, physical activity, and sleep duration, were coded on a 3-point scale (range, 0-2, with higher score indicating a healthier lifestyle). Lifestyle was evaluated according to the total score of all 5 factors, and categorized into 3 groups: unfavorable (scores 0-4), intermediate (scores 5-7), and favorable (scores 8-10). Antihypertensive medication use was defined as use within the last 2 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

All-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality were identified by linking the cohort database with the health care system through December 31, 2018.

RESULTS

A total of 14 392 participants (mean [SD] age, 65.6 [7.4] years; 7277 [50.6%] men and 7115 [49.4%] women) with hypertension were included, and 2015 deaths were documented, including 761 cardiovascular deaths and 525 cancer deaths. Compared with individuals not using antihypertensive medication and with a lifestyle score of 0 to 4, the combination of using antihypertensive medication and having a lifestyle score of 8 to 10 was associated with the lowest risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.32; 95% CI, 0.25-0.42), cardiovascular mortality (HR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.21-0.53), and cancer mortality (HR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.19-0.47). In addition, improvement in lifestyle score after hypertension diagnosis was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.36-0.76) and cardiovascular mortality (HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30-0.94).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

These findings suggest that adherence to healthy lifestyle and antihypertensive medication treatment were associated with lower risk of mortality among adults with hypertension. These findings further support that, in addition to antihypertensive medication use, adopting a healthy lifestyle is associated with benefits in the prevention of premature death among individuals with hypertension.

Modification effect of ideal cardiovascular health metrics on genetic association with incident heart failure in the China Kadoorie Biobank and the UK Biobank

BACKGROUND

Both genetic and cardiovascular factors contribute to the risk of developing heart failure (HF), but whether idea cardiovascular health metrics (ICVHMs) offset the genetic association with incident HF remains unclear.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the genetic association with incident HF as well as the modification effect of ICVHMs on such genetic association in Chinese and British populations.

METHODS

An ICVHMs based on smoking, drinking, physical activity, diets, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipids, and a polygenic risk score (PRS) for HF were constructed in the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) of 96,014 participants and UK Biobank (UKB) of 335,782 participants which were free from HF and severe chronic diseases at baseline.

RESULTS

During the median follow-up of 11.38 and 8.73 years, 1451 and 3169 incident HF events were documented in CKB and UKB, respectively. HF risk increased monotonically with the increase of PRS per standard deviation (CKB: hazard ratio [HR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07, 1.32; UKB: 1.07; 1.03, 1.11; P for trend < 0.001). Each point increase in ICVHMs was associated with 15% and 20% lower risk of incident HF in CKB (0.85; 0.81, 0.90) and UKB (0.80; 0.77, 0.82), respectively. Compared with unfavorable ICVHMs, favorable ICVHMs was associated with a lower HF risk, with 0.71 (0.44, 1.15), 0.41 (0.22, 0.77), and 0.48 (0.30, 0.77) in the low, intermediate, and high genetic risk in CKB and 0.34 (0.26, 0.44), 0.32 (0.25, 0.41), and 0.37 (0.28, 0.47) in UKB (P for multiplicative interaction > 0.05). Participants with low genetic risk and favorable ICVHMs, as compared with high genetic risk and unfavorable ICVHMs, had 56~72% lower risk of HF (CKB 0.44; 0.28, 0.70; UKB 0.28; 0.22, 0.37). No additive interaction between PRS and ICVHMs was observed (relative excess risk due to interaction was 0.05 [-0.22, 0.33] in CKB and 0.04 [-0.14, 0.22] in UKB).

CONCLUSIONS

In CKB and UKB, genetic risk and ICVHMs were independently associated with the risk of incident HF, which suggested that adherence to favorable cardiovascular health status was associated with a lower HF risk among participants with all gradients of genetic risk.

Antihypertensive treatment is not a risk factor for major cardiovascular events in the Gubbio residential cohort study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Demonstration of antihypertensive beneficial role in population settings is difficult. Relationships of antihypertensive treatment, blood pressure control, risk factors and cardiovascular outcomes were investigated in the Gubbio study.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Among 2248 cardiovascular disease-free men and women aged 35-74 years, individuals were classified as nonhypertensive, controlled hypertensive, uncontrolled hypertensive and untreated hypertensive based on cut-off limits of 140/90  mmHg for SBP/DBP and/or the use of antihypertensive drugs. End-point was the first major coronary, cerebrovascular or peripheral hard event [cardiovascular disease (CVD)] during a 15-year average. Univariate and multivariate analyses were run.

RESULTS

Nonhypertensive individuals were about 10 years younger and had lower risk factor levels than the other categories. The relative risk (and 95% confidence interval) for CVD versus nonhypertension was 1.78 (1.02-3.10) for controlled hypertension, 3.76 (2.79-5.06) for uncontrolled hypertension and 3.30 (2.59-4.21) for untreated hypertension (UTH). After adjusting for covariates, such as sex, age, achieved blood pressure and other risk factors, the CVD risk of controlled hypertension was practically equal to that of nonhypertension, and remained unchanged even when blood pressure was excluded from the model (1.03, 0.58-1.82). The higher cardiovascular risk of uncontrolled hypertension and UTH was reduced after adjusting for covariates, but remained significantly higher than in nonhypertension, with no significant differences between uncontrolled hypertension and UTH.

CONCLUSIONS

A higher level of baseline risk is not due to treatment per se, the risk being similar in uncontrolled hypertension and UTH. Adjustment for risk factors reduces the risk only in controlled hypertension, suggesting that there may be structural alterations scarcely reversible by antihypertensive treatment.