Background We examined the interrelationships among cardiovascular health (CVH), assessed by the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 (LS7) health metrics, silent myocardial infarction (SMI), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Methods and Results This analysis included 6766 participants without a history of coronary heart disease from the Third Report of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Poor, intermediate, and ideal CVH were defined as an LS7 score of 0 to 4, 5 to 9, and 10 to 14, respectively. SMI was defined as ECG evidence of myocardial infarction without a clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to examine the association of baseline CVH with CVD death stratified by SMI status on follow-up. In multivariable logistic regression models, ideal CVH was associated with 69% lower odds of SMI compared with poor CVH. During a median follow-up of 14 years, 907 CVD deaths occurred. In patients without SMI, intermediate CVH (hazard ratio, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.14-1.74) and poor CVH (hazard ratio, 2.77; 95% CI, 2.10-3.66) were associated with increased risk of CVD mortality, compared with ideal CVH. However, in the presence of SMI, the magnitude of these associations almost doubled (hazard ratio, 2.17 [95% CI, 1.42-3.32] for intermediate CVH and hazard ratio, 6.28 [95% CI, 3.02-13.07] for poor CVH). SMI predicted a significant increased risk of CVD mortality in the intermediate and poor CVH subgroups but a nonsignificant increased risk in the ideal CVH subgroup. Conclusions Ideal CVH is associated with a lower risk of SMI, and concomitant presence of SMI and poor CVH is associated with a worse prognosis. These novel findings underscore the potential role of maintaining ideal CVH in preventing future CVD outcomes.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease prevention; cardiovascular outcomes; lifestyle.