Cardiovascular Health in Young Adulthood Tied to Outcomes 35 Years Later

FRIDAY, Oct. 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Cardiovascular health (CVH) in young adulthood influences the future risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study published online Oct. 6 in JAMA Network Open.James W. Guo, M.D., from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues conducted a prospective longitudinal cohort study to assess whether longitudinal patterns of change in CVH through young adulthood are associated with the risk for incident CVD in later life. The analysis included 4,241 Black and White young adults (aged 18 to 30 years) participating in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study.During 35 years of follow-up, the researchers identified four distinct CVH trajectory patterns. The moderate-to-low declining and moderate declining CVH trajectories had a substantially higher risk for incident CVD compared with the persistently high CVH trajectory. The risk for incident CVD events ranged from an adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] of 2.15 in the persistently moderate pattern to 9.96 in the moderate-to-low declining pattern. Compared with stable moderate CVH in young adulthood, stable high CVH had a lower risk for incident CVD (aHR, 0.25) and stable low CVH had a higher risk (aHR, 5.91). Each 10-point decrease in Life’s Essential 8 score between years 0 and 20 was associated with an increased CVD risk (aHR, 1.53)."The key takeaway from this study is that things you do in your younger life can affect your cardiovascular health later on in life, which is a concept that intuitively makes sense," Gaurav Rao, M.D., director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Cardiovascular Health in Young Adulthood Tied to Outcomes 35 Years Later

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