Impact of cardiovascular health on biological aging: evidence from UK Biobank

Abstract Aging represents a pivotal risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and the Life’s Essential 8 (LE-8) score, encompassing physical activity, diet, nicotine exposure, sleep health, BMI, blood glucose, blood lipids, and blood pressure, has been associated with age-related diseases. To elucidate the relationship between LE-8 scores and biological aging, a cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing the UK Biobank cohort. The LE-8 score, ranging from 0 to 100, adheres to the American Heart Association’s standards. Biological aging was evaluated using the frailty index, phenotypic age acceleration, retinal age gap, and brain age gap. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess correlations. Among the 233,031 participants (mean age 56.0 years, 50.7% female), 43,497 (18.7%) had a high LE-8 score, 177,950 (76.3%) had a moderate score, and 11,584 (5.0%) had a low score. The average measurements for biological aging markers were: ocular aging clock 0.30 ± 4.55 years, phenotypic age acceleration − 4.06 ± 5.24 years, frailty index 0.13 ± 0.07 years, and brain age gap 0.64 ± 3.59 years. After adjusting for potential confounders, the LE-8 score exhibited significant correlations with the ocular aging clock (moderate vs. low LE-8: β: 0.25; 95% CI: 0.02–0.48; high vs. low LE-8: β: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.20–1.16; P trend = 0.001), phenotypic age acceleration (moderate vs. low LE-8: β: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.22–0.33; high vs. low LE-8: β: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.35–1.58; P trend < 0.001), and frailty index (moderate vs. low LE-8: β: 0.01; 95% CI: 0.01–0.01; high vs. low LE-8: β: 0.02; 95% CI: 0.02–0.02; P trend < 0.001). Furthermore, nicotine exposure and blood glucose scores were correlated with all four biological aging metrics. Overall, the LE-8 score and its components were inversely associated with biological aging., suggesting that maintaining an optimal LE-8 score may attenuate the aging process.