Behavioral Procrastination and Heart Age Acceleration in a Large Occupational Cohort

Background: Behavioral procrastination has been increasingly recognized as a maladaptive self-regulatory pattern associated with unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, psychological stress, and adverse cardiometabolic profiles. However, its relationship with accelerated cardiovascular aging remains poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the association between behavioral procrastination and heart age acceleration in a large occupational cohort of Spanish workers. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted including 92,184 actively employed Spanish workers undergoing routine occupational health examinations between 2021 and 2024. Behavioral procrastination was assessed using the Pure Procrastination Scale-9 (PPS-9). Estimated heart age and heart age acceleration were calculated using a cardiovascular risk-factor-based algorithm. Multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate associations between procrastination score, continuous heart age acceleration, and accelerated cardiovascular aging phenotypes after adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, anthropometric, and cardiometabolic variables. Restricted cubic spline analyses and sex-stratified analyses were additionally conducted. Results: Higher procrastination levels were associated with progressively worse cardiometabolic and cardiovascular aging profiles. Mean heart age acceleration increased from -3.1 ± 6.0 years in participants with very low procrastination to 14.0 ± 6.4 years in those with very high/chronic procrastination (p < 0.001). The prevalence of accelerated cardiovascular aging (>0 years) increased from 27.2% to 94.2% across increasing procrastination categories, whereas severe accelerated cardiovascular aging (≥10 years) increased from 1.7% to 75.6% (both p < 0.001). In fully adjusted multivariable analyses, each 5-point increase in PPS-9 score was associated with a 0.50-year increase in heart age acceleration (B = 0.50; 95% CI 0.48-0.52; p < 0.001). Participants with very high/chronic procrastination exhibited significantly higher odds of accelerated cardiovascular aging (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.65-2.18) and severe accelerated cardiovascular aging (OR 2.51; 95% CI 2.16-2.92). Associations were significantly stronger among women (p-interaction < 0.001). Findings remained robust in sensitivity analyses excluding participants with diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: Behavioral procrastination was associated with higher estimated heart age acceleration and less favorable cardiovascular aging profiles in this large occupational cohort. Higher procrastination severity was consistently related to greater estimated heart age acceleration and a higher prevalence of cardiovascular aging phenotypes, even after extensive multivariable adjustment. These findings indicate that higher procrastination levels were associated with less favorable cardiovascular aging profiles beyond traditional biomedical risk factors. However, given the cross-sectional design, no conclusions regarding causality or temporality can be drawn.