Association between Life's Essential 8 scale and liver fibrosis - NHANES 2017-2018

Objective: liver fibrosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are intimately linked. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between liver fibrosis and cardiovascular health (CVH), as assessed by the Life's Essential 8 (LE8) scale. Methods: 3,609 adult participants from the United States participated in this cross-sectional study, which used information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database for the years 2017-2018. Three categories were established for CVH and its eight metrics: high (80-100), moderate (50-79), and low (0-49). To screen for liver fibrosis, liver stiffness measurement (LSM) was assessed using vibration-controlled elastography (VCTE) with a threshold of 8.0 kPa. Linear and logistic regression were used to evaluate the relationship between CVH and liver fibrosis, smoothed curve fitting was used to investigate the nonlinear relationship, and subgroup analysis was performed to test the robustness of the relationship. Results: total CVH and its subcomponents (diet, PA, BP, blood glucose, and BMI) had an inverse relationship with hepatic fibrosis. In the fully adjusted model, there was a stronger negative connection between the high CVH score group and hepatic fibrosis [odds ratios, OR = 0.10, 95 % confidence intervals, CI (0.05, 0.19)]. Sleep health, nicotine exposure, blood lipids, and liver fibrosis had no statistically significant differences, and the negative link between LE8 and liver fibrosis was stronger in young and middle-aged people. Conclusions: there was a substantial negative connection between LE8 and its subcomponents and liver fibrosis. According to our research, keeping appropriate CVH levels may help lower the prevalence of liver cirrhosis and fibrosis, which would have a major effect on public health.