According to a recent study that suggested less than 7 percent of U.S adult population is in good cardiometabolic health, a devastating health crisis requires urgent action. A group of researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at tufts university uncovered a new perspective on trends and disparities in cardiometabolic health. The study findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The researchers evaluated American people on five components of health: blood pressure levels, 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, the trends between 1999 and 2018 also got significantly worse for adiposity and blood glucose. In 1999, 1 in 3 adults had optimal levels of adiposity (not overweight or obese); that number dropped to 1 in 4 in 2018. Also, 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 staggering. It’s deeply problematic than in the USAone of the richest nations in the world, fewer than 1 in 15 adults is in optimal cardiometabolic health,” said Meghan O’Hearn, a doctoral candidate at the Friedman School and lead author of the study. “We need a comprehensive review of our care medical. system, food system and built environment, because this is a crisis for everyone, not just one segment of the population.
The study looked at a nationally representative sample of approximately 55,000 people age 20 and 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 just the presence or absence of disease. “We need to change the conversation, because the disease is not the only problem,” O’Hearn said. “We don’t just want to be disease free. We want to achieve optimal health and wellness.” 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 be in optimal cardiometabolic health compared to adults with more education, and Mexicans American people had a third of the optimal levels compared to non-Hispanic white adults. Additionally, between 1999 and 2018, while the percentage of adults in good cardiometabolic health increased modestly among non-Hispanic whites American peoplehe was lowered by Mexican American peopleother Hispanicnon-Hispanic blacks and adults of other races.
“This is really troublesome. Social Health determinants such as food and nutritional security, social and community context, economic stability, and structural racism put people of different educational levels, races, and ethnicities at higher risk for health problems,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School. and lead author.” This highlights the other important work going on at the Friedman School and tufts university better understand and address the underlying causes of poor nutrition and health disparities in the U.S and worldwide.” The study also looked at “intermediate” levels of health, not optimal but not yet poor, including conditions such as prediabetes, prehypertension, and overweight. “A large portion of the population is at a critical tipping point O’Hearn said. “Identifying these people and addressing their health and lifestyle conditions early is critical to reducing growing health care burdens and health disparities.”
The consequences of the serious state of health of U.S adults go beyond personal health. “Its impacts on national health care spending and the financial health of the entire economy are enormous,” O’Hearn said. “And these conditions are largely preventable. We have the clinical and public health interventions and policies in place to be able to address these issues.” 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 affordable; consumer education on a healthy diet; and the participation of the private sector to promote a healthier and more equitable food system. “There are a lot of different avenues through which this can be done,” O’Hearn said. “We need a multisectoral approach, and we need the political will and desire to do it.”
“This is a health crisis that we’ve been dealing with for a while,” O’Hearn said. “There is now a growing economic, social and ethical imperative to give this problem much more attention than it has been receiving.” (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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