The relationship between Life's Essential 8 measures and chest pain amon g adults in the USA: A cross-sectional study

Objective To explore associations between Life's Essential 8 (LE8) scores of cardiovascular health and chest pain risk in adult in the USA. Methods This cross-sectional investigation utilized data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey study covering the period between 2005 and 2018. Life's Essential 8 scores were generated for each patient, and correlations between variables were probed with multivariate linear and logistic spline models. The participants are American adults over the age of 20. Results This study enrolled 15,619 American adults, including 4232 reporting chest pain. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that a 10-point increase in the total LE8 score was associated with a 14% drop in chest pain risk (odds ratio = 0.86, 95%CI: 0.83–0.90, p < 0.001). Analysis of each LE8 component revealed that increased dietary, nicotine exposure, sleep quality, BMI, and blood glucose score values were all independently related to decreased chest pain risk (all p < 0.05). In subgroup analyses, the LE8 exhibited a stronger protective effect in individuals under 60, those with low income, and those without diabetes ( p for interaction < 0.05). Conclusions A significant association was found between LE8 scores and chest pain incidence in the US adults. Improvements in diet, smoking cessation, better sleep quality, glycemic control, and weight management may be key modifiable targets in the prevention of chest pain. These findings suggest that the LE8 scoring system may function as a valuable, integrated metric for assessing chest pain risk in clinical and public health contexts.