Cardiology Research

Comparative Analysis of LE8 and LS7 Scores for Mortality Prediction in Cardiovascular Health

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Summary of Cardiovascular Research, cvae103. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvae103
Dr. Naman S. Shetty et al.

Points

  • The study introduced the Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score as a replacement for the Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) score to assess cardiovascular health and compared their risk prediction values for mortality.
  • The research evaluated the risk prediction efficacy of LE8 and LS7 scores in individuals aged 40 to 79, comparing them with the pooled cohort equations (PCE) for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
  • To determine mortality outcomes, data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2018), linking participants to the National Death Index, were used.
  • LE8 and LS7 scores showed similar C-statistics for all-cause (0.823 for LE8, 0.819 for LS7) and cardiovascular mortality (0.887 for LE8, 0.883 for LS7).
  • In the 40- to 79-year-old age group, the PCE demonstrated superior risk discrimination for all-cause mortality (C-statistic of 0.756) compared to LS7 (0.674) and LE8 (0.681), highlighting the need for age-specific risk assessment tools.

Summary

The study conducted in 2022 introduced the Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score as a replacement for the Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) score to assess cardiovascular health. However, a comparative analysis of the risk prediction values of LE8 and LS7 scores for mortality and their comparison with the pooled cohort equations (PCE) in individuals aged 40 to 79 years has yet to be undertaken. This research aims to evaluate the risk prediction efficacy of LE8 and LS7 scores in the general population and to compare these scores with the PCE, specifically in the 40- to 79-year-old age group concerning all-cause and cardiovascular mortality within a nationally representative US population.

The study calculated LS7 and LE8 scores along with the PCE using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles from 2007 to 2018. All-cause and cardiovascular mortality outcomes were determined by linking participants to the National Death Index. The C-statistics derived from weighted Cox models were utilized to assess and compare the risk prediction capabilities of the standardized scores. Among the 21,721 individuals studied, the C-statistics for all-cause mortality were 0.823 for LE8 and 0.819 for LS7, while for cardiovascular mortality, the values were 0.887 for LE8 and 0.883 for LS7. In the 40- to 79-year-old age group comprising 12,943 individuals, the PCE demonstrated superior risk discrimination for all-cause mortality with a C-statistic of 0.756 compared to LS7 (0.674) and LE8 (0.681) scores.

The findings suggest that LE8 and LS7 scores exhibit comparable risk prediction values for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Notably, in the 40- to 79-year-old cohort, the PCE outperformed LE8 and LS7 scores in predicting all-cause mortality. These results underscore the importance of considering age-specific risk assessment tools for mortality prediction and call for further research to refine risk prediction models tailored to different age groups for more accurate cardiovascular health evaluations.

Link to the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772963X24001303


References

Shetty, N. S., Gaonkar, M., Patel, N., Li, P., Arora, G., & Arora, P. (2024). Association of Life’s Essential 8 and Simple 7 Scores With Mortality: Comparison With Pooled Cohort Equation. JACC: Advances, 3(6), 100945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.100945

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