Higher heart health scores linked to lower risk after menopause
High scores were associated with 65% lower relative risk of cardiovascular events or cardiovascular death than low scores over 18.7 years.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of 18,453 postmenopausal women, 18.7 years, against women with low CVH scores
- What changed:
- Cardiovascular events and cardiovascular death were 65% lower (HR 0.35) among women with high scores than low scores
- The catch:
- Women with higher scores may differ in unmeasured health habits or access to care
- Why it’s aging research:
- It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
The 18,453 postmenopausal women in this observational analysis averaged 63.6 years of age and had no cardiovascular disease at enrollment. They came from the Women’s Health Initiative’s clinical trial and observational cohorts. Researchers calculated their starting Life’s Essential 8 scores using diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep, weight relative to height, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Over 18.7 years, 4,908 cardiovascular events or cardiovascular deaths occurred. After adjustment for age, race, ethnicity and education, moderate scores were associated with 42% lower relative risk and high scores with 65% lower relative risk than low scores.
Why it matters
Cardiovascular risk assessment after menopause could draw on this eight-part framework, including sleep, according to the authors.
Caveats
Women with higher scores may also have differed in unmeasured health habits or access to care. This conference abstract covered only postmenopausal women without prior cardiovascular disease.
The paper
Life’s Essential 8 and Incident Cardiovascular Outcomes in Postmenopausal Women
Dept of Medicine
AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 Abstract, Nov 2, 2026
Presented at AHA Scientific Sessions 2026, abstract 16385
Comments
Be the first to comment.