Association between the Life's essential 8 health behaviors score and all-cause mortality in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Abstract

Background: The association between Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score and all-cause mortality in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) remains unknown.

Methods: This population-based prospective cohort study analyzed data of participants aged 20-79 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2018, with linked mortality information until 2019. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between different cardiovascular health (CVH) scores and all-cause mortality in participants with MASLD.

Results: Among 11,988 participants, 4109 (34.3 %) were diagnosed with MASLD. During the median 7.8 years of follow-up, 912 deaths were recorded. Unexpectedly, the total LE8 CVH score was not associated with all-cause mortality in patients with MASLD (all P > .05). However, individuals with MASLD with moderate and poor LE8 health behaviors scores exhibited an increased risk of all-cause mortality (moderate: HR, 1.51; 95 % CI, 1.05-2.17; poor: HR, 2.32; 95 % CI, 1.64-3.30), particularly among patients with advanced fibrosis (moderate: HR, 1.77; 95 % CI, 1.07-2.92; poor: HR, 2.43; 95 % CI, 1.23-4.78). Population-attributable fraction estimates suggest that 35.0 % of all-cause mortality attributed to poor or moderate health behaviors scores could be avoided if ideal CVH metrics were achieved in all patients with MASLD.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate a significant association between the LE8 health behaviors score and all-cause mortality in patients with MASLD, highlighting the usefulness of this score in optimizing risk management strategies for MASLD in future clinical practice.

Keywords: Cardiovascular health; MASLD; Mortality; NHANES; Population-attributable fraction.