Prevalence of Ideal Cardiovascular Health Metrics in the Million Veteran Program

Abstract

No data exist on the prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health metrics in a national sample of U.S. veterans. We assessed the prevalence of ideal Life's Simple Seven (LSS) metrics in a cross-sectional study of 554,855 U.S. veterans enrolled in the Million Veteran Program (MVP) from 2011 to 2017. We used the American Heart Association's established criteria to categorize each LSS metric as either poor, intermediate, or ideal for a veteran at time of MVP enrollment. Information on adiposity/body mass index, smoking status, diet, and physical activity was obtained from self-reported survey data, and clinical measurements for total cholesterol, blood pressure, and plasma glucose were obtained from electronic health records. Complete data on all LSS health factors were available for 201,745 veterans. The prevalence of having 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 ideal cardiovascular health metrics was 29.2%, 34.6%, 22.6%, 10.0%, 3.0%, 0.6%, <0.1%, and 0%, respectively. The frequency of ideal body mass index, physical activity, smoking status, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and plasma glucose was 19.4%, 3.8%, 27.0%, 21.8%, 17.8%, and 34.5%, respectively, in our study population. Among the 7 metrics, MVP participants were least likely to achieve ideal diet (0.4%), particularly the recommendation for fruit and vegetable (at least 4.5 cups/day) intake. Our data show an extremely low prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health factors among veterans in the MVP, especially for diet and physical activity. These findings underscore the need to improve adherence to modifiable lifestyle factors that could result in subsequent reduction in cardiovascular disease burden among veterans.