Abstract
BACKGROUND: The association between cardiovascular disease health (CVH) and frailty has not been conclusive. The American Heart Association (AHA) has proposed the Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score as an indicator of CVH. We sought to examine the association between LE8 and frailty among older people from the US general population. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2015-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and included older people aged ≥60 years. The LE8 score includes 8 metrics (4 health behaviors and 4 health factors). Frailty status was assessed using the FRAIL scale based on 5 criteria. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations. RESULTS: A total of 2,511 older people (aged 60 years, with a weighted number of 49,532,259) were included. Among them, 1,294 (weighted percentage: 46.0%) were male and 1,217 (weighted percentage: 54.0%) were female. Older people with a higher LE8 score had a lower risk of frailty, the odds ratio (OR) for each standard deviation (SD) increase in the LE8 score was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.48-0.71, P < 0.001). Similar results were observed in the associations of the health behaviors [OR 0.62 (95% CI, 0.50-0.78), P < 0.001] and health factors [OR 0.76 (95% CI, 0.60-0.96), P = 0.024] with frailty. After excluding older people with poor health status, the results remained significant, the OR for per SD score increase was 0.57 (95% CI, 0.46-0.69, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: A higher LE8 score was associated with lower risk of frailty among older people in the US. Adherence to optimal CVH scores may be beneficial in helping prevent frailty.