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Healthy lifestyle factors associated with reduced cardiometabolic risk

L Shi1, J A Morrison, J Wiecha

  • 1College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts-Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125, USA. ling.shi@umb.edu

The British Journal of Nutrition
|February 1, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Adopting a healthy lifestyle, including diet and exercise, significantly reduces cardiometabolic risk. Each additional healthy behavior lowers risk, with 5-6 behaviors reducing prevalence by 70%.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Health
  • Preventive Medicine
  • Lifestyle Medicine

Background:

  • Limited data exist on the cumulative impact of healthy lifestyle behaviors on cardiometabolic risk.
  • Understanding these combined effects is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies.
  • Cardiometabolic risk encompasses a cluster of conditions including obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and impaired glucose metabolism.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between a combination of healthy lifestyle behaviors and cardiometabolic risk reduction.
  • To quantify the impact of adopting multiple healthy habits on cardiometabolic risk factors.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional analysis of 1454 participants from the population-based Lipid Research Clinic's Princeton Follow-up Study.
  • Defined healthy lifestyle factors: fruit/vegetable intake (≥5 servings/day), meat intake (≤2 servings/day), non-smoking, moderate alcohol consumption (2-6 drinks/week), limited TV time (≤2 hours/day), and physical activity (≥4 hours/week).
  • Statistical analysis adjusted for race, age, generation, and sex.

Main Results:

  • A combined healthy lifestyle demonstrated a strong negative association with cardiometabolic risk and a composite risk score.
  • Each additional healthy lifestyle factor was associated with a 31% decrease in cardiometabolic risk (OR 0.69).
  • Individuals with 5-6 healthy behaviors showed a 70% lower prevalence of cardiometabolic risk compared to those with 0-1 behaviors (OR 0.30).

Conclusions:

  • A synergistic effect of healthy lifestyle behaviors significantly reduces cardiometabolic risk.
  • Promoting a combination of dietary, physical activity, and other healthy habits is a viable strategy for cardiometabolic risk mitigation.
  • Specific behaviors like sufficient fruit/vegetable intake, reduced meat consumption, limited screen time, smoking cessation, moderate alcohol use, and regular exercise contribute to reduced risk.

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