Only seven percent of adults have good cardiometabolic health

Less than 7 percent of the U.S. adult population has good cardiometabolic health, a devastating health crisis requiring urgent action, according to research led by a team with pioneering perspective on cardiometabolic health trends and disparities published in the July 12 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researchers evaluated Americans across five components of health: levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, adiposity (overweight and obesity), and presence or absence of cardiovascular disease (heart attack, stroke, etc.). They found that only 6.8 percent of U.S. adults had optimal levels of all five components as of 2017-2018. Among these five components, trends between 1999 and 2018 also worsened significantly for adiposity and blood glucose. In 1999, 1 out of 3 adults had optimal levels for adiposity (no overweight or obesity); that number decreased to 1 out of 4 by 2018. Likewise, while 3 out of 5 adults didn't have diabetes or prediabetes in 1999, fewer than 4 out of 10 adults were free of these conditions in 2018.

The researchers also identified large health disparities between people of different sexes, ages, races and ethnicities, and education levels. For example, adults with less education were half as likely to have optimal cardiometabolic health compared with adults with more education, and Mexican Americans had one-third the optimal levels versus non-Hispanic White adults. Additionally, between 1999 and 2018, while the percentage of adults with good cardiometabolic health modestly increased among non-Hispanic White Americans, it went down for Mexican American, other Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and adults of other races.

The consequences of the dire state of health among U.S. adults reach beyond personal health. Its impacts on national healthcare spending and the financial health of the entire economy are enormous, and these conditions are largely preventable ended the authors.

Reference: Meghan O'Hearn, Brianna N. Lauren, John B. Wong, David D. Kim, Dariush Mozaffarian, Trends and Disparities in Cardiometabolic Health Among U.S. Adults, 1999-2018, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 80, Issue 2, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.04.046.