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Ideal cardiovascular health is inversely associated with incident cancer: the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities

Laura J Rasmussen-Torvik1, Christina M Shay, Judith G Abramson

  • 1Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. ljrtorvik@northwestern.edu

Circulation
|March 20, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Adhering to the American Heart Association's (AHA) ideal cardiovascular health metrics is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer. Maintaining 6-7 ideal metrics significantly reduced cancer incidence in a large study.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Health and Oncology
  • Public Health and Epidemiology

Background:

  • The American Heart Association (AHA) established 7 ideal cardiovascular health metrics to guide public health initiatives.
  • The Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study provided a long-term cohort for examining health associations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between adherence to the 7 AHA ideal cardiovascular health metrics and the incidence of various cancers.
  • To determine if a greater number of ideal cardiovascular health metrics correlates with a reduced risk of developing cancer.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 13,253 participants from the ARIC study with 17-19 years of follow-up.
  • Classification of participants based on 7 AHA ideal cardiovascular health metrics at baseline.
  • Utilized Cox regression to assess the relationship between ideal cardiovascular health metrics and incident cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers).

Main Results:

  • A significant, graded, inverse association was observed between the number of ideal cardiovascular health metrics and cancer incidence (P trend <0.0001).
  • Participants with 6-7 ideal metrics (2.7% of the cohort) exhibited a 51% lower risk of incident cancer compared to those with 0 ideal metrics.
  • Removing smoking from the ideal metrics analysis attenuated the association, with 5-6 ideal metrics showing a 25% lower cancer risk (P trend =0.03).

Conclusions:

  • Adherence to the 7 AHA ideal cardiovascular health metrics is associated with a reduced incidence of cancer.
  • The AHA's public health strategies should emphasize cardiovascular health for broader chronic disease prevention, including cancer.
  • Collaboration between cardiovascular and cancer advocacy groups is recommended to reduce overall chronic disease burden.
Abstract

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