The association of ideal cardiovascular health and left ventricle hypertrophy in rural population of northeast China

In 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA) published a new concept "ideal cardiovascular health" (CVH), which consisted of 4 behaviors (smoking, body mass index [BMI], physical activity, and diet score) and 3 health factors (total cholesterol [TC], blood pressure [BP], and fasting plasma glucose [FPG]). This study was aimed to investigate the association between CVH with left ventricle hypertrophy (LVH) in a rural general population.From January 2012 to August 2013, we conducted this cross-sectional study using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. A representative sample of individuals who were at 35 years or older was selected. All the 7 CVH metrics were estimated for ideal, intermediate, and poor levels. LVH was accessed by echocardiography and classified into concentric remodeling, concentric LVH, and eccentric LVH. The association between CVH and LVH was determined.The final data were obtained from 10,684 adults (5497 men and 5187 women) in the rural areas of northeast China. Overall, the prevalence rates of concentric remodeling, concentric LVH, and eccentric LVH were 5.1%, 4.9%, and 12.8%, respectively. The prevalence of concentric/eccentric LVH was inversely related to the numbers of ideal CVH metrics. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that only poor BP was associated with concentric remodeling among the 7 CVH metrics; poor BP was highly associated with concentric LVH (OR: 8.49; 95% CI: 4.59-15.7); poor BMI was highly associated with eccentric LVH (OR: 5.87; 95% CI: 4.83-7.14). Compared to subjects with 5 to 7 ideal CVH metrics, subjects with 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 ideal CVH metrics had an increased risk for both concentric and eccentric LVH in a number-dependent manner. The subjects with poor CVH status had a 5.90-fold higher risk of developing concentric LVH and a 3.24-fold higher risk of developing eccentric LVH, compared to subjects with ideal-intermediate CVH.Our study found that an inversely gradient relationship existed between the prevalence of concentric/eccentric LVH with the numbers of ideal CVH metrics. Although not all the 7 CVH metrics were associated with LVH, the components of CVH metrics carried a synergistic effect beyond the risk related to the component alone.