Psychological Well-being's Link with Cardiovascular Health in Older Adults

Favorable cardiovascular health (FCH) is associated with healthy longevity and reduced cardiovascular mortality risk. However, limited work has investigated the distribution of FCH in older age or considered the antecedents of FCH. Based on prior work linking psychological well-being with cardiovascular endpoints, higher psychological well-being was hypothesized to be associated with increased likelihood of maintaining FCH over time.

Data were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The first study wave (2002-2003) included men and women aged ≥50 years. The analytic sample (N=4,925) was restricted to individuals without baseline cardiovascular disease and with clinical data from three follow-ups through 2013. Psychological well-being was assessed with 17 items from the Control, Autonomy, Satisfaction, and Pleasure scale. FCH was defined as being a non-smoker, diabetes-free, and having healthy levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI (FCH scores ranged from 0-5). Statistical analyses conducted in 2016-2017 used linear mixed models to examine associations between psychological well-being and FCH scores over time. Secondary analyses examined cardiovascular-related mortality.

Only 1% of participants had achieved complete FCH at study baseline. Adjusting for sociodemographic factors and depression, greater psychological well-being was associated with higher FCH scores across time (β=0.05, 95% CI=0.02, 0.08), but not rate of change in FCH. Psychological well-being was also associated with a 29% reduced risk of cardiovascular-related mortality in multivariable-adjusted models.

Findings suggest that psychological well-being is associated with having FCH at older ages, and add to knowledge of assets that may increase likelihood of healthy aging.