Physician-scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine conducted a nationwide study evaluating the predictive value of cardiovascular health scores for mortality. The study, recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances, compares two cardiovascular health metrics developed by the American Heart Association -; Life's Simple 7 (LS7) and its updated version, the Life's Essential 8 (LE8) -; to the well-established Pooled Cohort Equation recognized by the American College of Cardiology.
In 2022, the AHA recognized sleep as a vital determinant of cardiovascular health. Therefore, the prior cardiovascular health metric, the LS7 score, was revamped into the LE8 with the inclusion of sleep as a critical health component. This marked a significant evolution in our approach to measuring cardiovascular health.
This research delves into the comparative predictive validity of these tools for mortality, providing a thorough analysis relevant for clinicians and patients." Naman S. Shetty, M.
D., lead author of the study and research fellow in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease The study questions whether these cardiovascular health scores should be used for mortality risk prediction by comparing them with a validation risk prediction tool, the PCE. The research utilized extensive national population-level data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2018, a biennial surv.