Life's Essential 8 Is Enhanced With a Psychological Health Measure
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21, 2024 -- A measure of cardiovascular health (CVH) based on Life's Essential 8 (LE8) that is enhanced with a measure of psychological health strongly predicts mortality, according to a study published in the August issue of JACC: Advances.
Vanessa T. Dinh, M.P.H., from the Mailman School of Public Health at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues evaluated associations of a CVH construct enhanced with a ninth metric for psychological health based on depression screening using the Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-2 and PHQ-9). Analysis included 21,183 adults.
The researchers found that high versus low CVH scores, enhanced with PHQ-2 and PHQ-9, were associated with 69 percent and 70 percent lower mortality risk, while a high versus low LE8 score was associated with 65 percent lower risk. For both LE8 and enhanced CVH scores, higher scores predicted lower mortality risk in both sexes and in Black and White adults, but not Hispanic adults. Higher scores for both LE8 and enhanced CVH were also associated with lower cardiovascular and cancer mortality. Both enhanced CVH scores had excellent performance for predicting mortality (C-statistic, 0.843 versus 0.842), which was similar to the LE8 score.
"Inclusion of psychological health as a ninth CVH metric, with depression screening as a feasible proxy in clinical and public health settings, should be considered," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted August 2024
Read this next
Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length Linked to Higher Incidence of Age-Related Brain Diseases
THURSDAY, June 12, 2025 -- Individuals with shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) have a higher incidence of stroke, dementia, and late-life depression (LLD), individually and...
Talking Therapy Reduces Depression, Anxiety Symptoms in Stroke Survivors
THURSDAY, June 12, 2025 -- For stroke survivors, talking therapy is associated with moderate reductions in depression and large reductions in anxiety symptoms, according to a...
Almost One-Quarter of U.S. Firearm Suicides May Occur Outside the Home
WEDNESDAY, June 11, 2025 -- A growing number of firearm suicides in the United States occur outside the home, most commonly in motor vehicles, according to a study published...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.