Application of Life?s Essential 8 to assess cardiovascular health during early childhood

Purpose: Assess cardiovascular health (CVH) during early childhood using the American Heart Association's recently updated construct, Life's Essential 8 (LE8); examine concordance in CVH status per LE8 versus Life's Simple 7 (LS7); and identify perinatal correlates of high CVH per LE8. Methods: We applied LE8 and LS7 to data from 305 children aged 4-7 years in Denver, CO; estimated % low, moderate, high, and optimal CVH; assessed concordance in CVH status based on LE8 and LS7 using con-tingency tables; and used multivariable logistic regression to identify early-life correlates of high CVH per LE8. Results: Average age of children was 4.7 +/- 0.6 years, 44.6% were female. No participants had low or optimal CVH, 43.9% had high, and 56.1% had moderate CVH per LE8, whereas 33.4% had high and 66.6% had moderate CVH per LS7. Twenty-two percent had high CVH based on both constructs. Correlates of high CVH were maternal prenatal diet quality (odds ratioHealthy Eating Index score > vs. <= 57 = 1.90 [1.12, 3.21]) and child age (odds ratioper 1 year = 1.58 [1.04. 2.42]). Conclusions: LE8 yielded higher prevalence of high CVH than LS7 during early childhood, though there is modest concordance between the two constructs. Maternal diet is a potential modifiable target to optimize early-life CVH. (c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The purpose of this study was to assess cardiovascular health (CVH) in early childhood using the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) construct, compare it to the Life's Simple 7 (LS7) construct, and identify perinatal factors associated with high CVH according to LE8. The results showed that LE8 yielded a higher prevalence of high CVH than LS7 during early childhood, with modest concordance between the two constructs. Maternal prenatal diet quality and child age were identified as correlates of high CVH according to LE8. Improving maternal diet may be a potential target for optimizing early-life CVH.