A team of researchers from Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts Universitytogether with colleagues from the Tufts Medical Centerstated in a recent study that less than 7% of the adult population in the United States has good cardiometabolic health, a very serious situation to which solutions must be found.
The results of the Research have been published in the scientific journal Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Cardiometabolic health: why it involves so few people
To understand cardiometabolic health, researchers studied Americans based on five components of health: levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, adiposity (overweight and obesity) and the presence or absence of cardiovascular disease (heart attack, stroke, etc.). The research team noted that only 6.8% of U.S. adults had optimal levels of all five components over the period 2017-2018.
Among these five components, trends between 1999 and 2018 also worsened significantly for adiposity and blood sugar. In 1999, 1 in 3 adults had optimal levels of adiposity (no overweight or obesity); that number dropped to 1 in 4 by 2018. Similarly, while 3 in 5 adults did not have diabetes or prediabetes in 1999, fewer than 4 in 10 adults were free of these conditions in 2018.
“These numbers are astonishing. It is deeply problematic that in the United States, one of the richest nations in the world, fewer than 1 in 15 adults have optimal cardiometabolic health.“, he has declared Meghan O’HearnPhD student at Friedman School and lead author of the study: “We need a complete overhaul of our health system, our food system and the built environment, because this is a crisis for everyone, not just a segment of the population.“.
The research was based on the study of a nationally representative sample of approximately 55,000 people aged 20 years or older from 1999 to 2018 from the 10 most recent cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The research team focused on optimal, intermediate and poor levels of cardiometabolic health and its components, rather than the mere presence or absence of disease: “We have to change the subject, because illness is not the only problem “O’Hearn said: “We don’t just want to be disease free. We want to achieve optimal health and well-being ”.
Researchers also identified large health disparities between people of different sex, age, race and ethnicity and educational levels.. For example, adults with less education were half as likely to have optimal cardiometabolic health than adults with more education, and Mexican Americans were one-third as likely to have optimal levels of non-Hispanic white adults. Additionally, between 1999 and 2018, while the percentage of adults with good cardiometabolic health increased slightly among non-Hispanic American whites, it fell for Mexican Americans, other Hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks, and adults of other races.
“This is really problematic. Social determinants of health such as food and nutrition security, social and community context, economic stability and structural racism place individuals of different educational levels, races and ethnicities at greater risk of health problems“, he has declared Dariush MozaffarianDean of the Friedman School and senior author: “This highlights the other important work underway at Friedman School and Tufts University to better understand and address the underlying causes of poor nutrition and health disparities in the United States and around the world.”
The study also assessed suboptimal but not yet poor “intermediate” health levels, including conditions such as pre-diabetes, pre-hypertension and overweight: “Much of the population is at a critical tipping point,” added O ‘Hearn: “Identifying these individuals and addressing their health conditions and lifestyle early is essential to reduce the growing health burden and health inequalities ”.
The consequences of the dire state of health among US adults go beyond personal health. “Its impacts on national health spending and the financial health of the entire economy are enormous, ”O’Hearn said. “And these conditions are largely preventable. We have the public health and clinical interventions and policies to be able to address these problems. “
Friedman School researchers are actively working on many of these solutions, O’Hearn said, including Food is Medicine interventions (using good nutrition to help prevent and treat disease); incentives and subsidies to make healthy food more accessible; consumer education on a healthy diet; and the commitment of the private sector to lead a healthier and more equitable food system. “There are many different avenues through which this can be done,” O’Hearn explained. “We need a multi-sectoral approach and we need the political will and the desire to do so.”
“This is a health crisis that we have been dealing with for a while‘”, Concluded O’Hearn:”There is now a growing economic, social and ethical imperative to give this issue far more attention than it is receiving. “
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