Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background Unfavorable health-related social needs (HRSNs) have the potential to worsen health and wellbeing and drive health disparities. Its associations with cardiovascular health (CVH), assessed by Life’s Essential 8 (LE8), have not been comprehensively examined among US adults.
Research Questions/Hypothesis Whether unfavorable HRSNs are associated with worse CVH.
Goals/Aims To determine associations between unfavorable HRSNs and CVH in a large, diverse, nationally representative sample of US adults.
Methods We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–March 2020 data for adults aged ≥20 years. We grouped LE8 scores as low (0–49), moderate (50–79), and high (80–100) CVH. We identified 8 unfavorable HRSNs: unemployed, low family poverty-to-income ratio, food insecurity, less than high school education, no healthcare access, no health insurance, no homeownership, and living alone. We assigned a value of 1 for the unfavorable status of each. The number of unfavorable HRSNs was summed and ranged from 0 to 8, with higher numbers indicating more unfavorable HRSNs. We categorized unfavorable HRSNs as none, 1–2, 3–4, and ≥5. We used multivariable linear and multinomial logistic regression to examine the association between HRSNs and CVH.
Results We included 14 947 participants (n=7340 male [49.3%]; mean [SE] age, 46.4 [0.35] years). Of those, 29.1% were categorized as having HRSNs 0, 40.4%; HRSNs 1–2, 21.5% HRSNs 3–4, and 9.0% HRSNs ≥5. The prevalence of low, moderate, and high CVH was 14.7%, 63.5%, and 21.8%, respectively. Every one-unit increase in unfavorable HRSNs was associated with 1.59 points lower LE8 scores (P<.001). Comparing participants with HRSNs values of 1–2, 3–4, and ≥5 to those with none, the fully adjusted prevalence ratios for low CVH were 1.42 (1.17–1.73), 2.11 (1.69–2.63), and 2.42 (1.90–3.08), respectively. The corresponding prevalence ratios for high CVH were 0.77 (0.68–0.87), 0.58 (0.49–0.67), and 0.46 (0.38–0.55). The associations were consistent across subgroups and in sensitivity analyses.
Conclusions A graded association exists between unfavorable HRSNs and higher prevalence of low CVH or lower prevalence of high CVH. Public health interventions targeting unfavorable HRSNs might reduce health disparities and promote CVH.