The original CVH construct described the quantification of the seven health behaviors or factors using the categories of poor, intermediate, or ideal. However, the use of these categories rather than a continuous scoring system makes the construct less sensitive to changes in the health of an individual over time or differences amongst individuals. For instance, the original construct categorizes individuals engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity for 1 to 149 minutes as having intermediate physical activity levels. However, the original CVH construct would have categorized both individuals who engage in a few minutes of physical activity and those who engage in 149 minutes as having intermediate physical activity levels. To remedy this, the AHA has developed a continuous scale from 0 to 100 to better quantify the levels of each health factor or behavior. The average score of the eight health components is then used to measure overall cardiovascular health on a scale from 0 to 100. The 2010 construct of cardiovascular health was focused on the quantities of intake of five nutrients, which included whole grains, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, sodium levels, and sugar-sweetened beverages. However, sodium or sugar intake can be hard to track. Instead, the updated CVH construct focuses on the intake of whole foods and healthy eating patterns. Moreover, there are cultural differences in eating patterns and the new CVH construct notes that there are multiple different strategies for achieving healthy eating patterns. Diet is always controversial and is very contextual; they do rely on U.S. data and metrics but this also limits the application to the U.S. population. They also mention the importance of considering social factors including ethnicity and race, along with diverse settings, and add a call for more research in this area. This is very important and to some, urgent,” she said. “The key gaps described by the advisory included information on diverse populations health equity, and this should be emphasized to ensure that funders of research and health promotion engage these communities in order to work within them to close these gaps. In addition to these eight factors, the new construct also highlights the role of psychological health and social factors in achieving cardiovascular health. Stress trusted Source and depression are associated with poor cardiovascular health most likely due to increased difficulty achieving a high cardiovascular health score, though depression itself may impact directly on cardiac health. In contrast, positive mental health Trusted Source is linked to better cardiovascular health. Moreover, social factors such as socioeconomic position, racial discrimination, education levels, employment status, social isolation, and access to healthcare can also impact cardiovascular health. “We considered social determinants of health carefully in our update and determined more research is needed on these components to establish their measurement and inclusion in the future,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones says. The original construct only included cigarette use as an indicator of cardiovascular health. The nicotine exposure metric has now been expanded to include e-cigarettes, vaping, and exposure to second-hand smoke. There is also some evidence to suggest that changing sleep duration can help modify the risk of cardiovascular disease
You must be logged in to post a comment.