Adults Score Low in Cardiovascular Health Indexes

Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of adults in the U.S. and around the world. The primary method to prevent or at least delay the disease is through health behaviors such as getting adequate exercise and eating right. In an effort to assess the compliance of U.S. adults with recommended lifestyle habits, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2003 to 2008 look at seven separate metrics of cardiovascular health. Their results were recently published online by the journal Circulation on Thursday.

The survey looked at nearly 15,000 adults 20 years of age or older. The adults were then stratified intow three groups: young (20 to 39 years old), middle aged (40 to 64 years old), and the elderly (65 and older). The cardiovascular health behaviors assessed included diet, physical activity and smoking. Cardiovascular health factors examined were blood pressure, total cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, and body mass index. For every adult, the status of each variable was classified as poor, intermediate, or ideal. The researchers also looked at the Healthy Diet Score for the adults.

The authors found compliance with the recommendation to not smoke was the highest among all adults, with 6 to 9 out of 10 adults across each age group reporting non-smoking status. On the other hand, the adults overall had poor diets, with the Healthy Diet Score being ideal in less than 3 out of 100 adults. Overall, less than 1 out of 100 adults scored ideal on all seven cardiovascular health indexes. The prevalence of these estimates was consistent across all race and ethnic groups evaluated. The authors concluded that their survey serves as a starting point from which the effectiveness of societal health interventions can be monitored and evaluated.

This study suggests U.S. adults can make significant improvements in their health by improving their cardiovascular behaviors. While most adults appear to understand the risks of smoking and have adopted a non-smoking lifestyle, the vast majority of adults don't eat properly and don't get enough physical activity. Improvement in these two behaviors likely would greatly increase overall health by decreasing the rates of obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.

References

Shay CM et al. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22095826. Circulation. 2011 Nov 17.

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