Participant‐Reported Health Status Predicts Cardiovascular and All‐Cause Mortality Independent of Established and Nontraditional Biomarkers: Evidence From a Representative US Sample

BACKGROUND: Participant-reported health status is a key indicator of cardiovascular health, but its predictive value relative to traditional and nontraditional risk factors is unknown. We evaluated whether participant-reported health status, as indexed by self-rated health, predicted cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality risk excess of 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk scores and 5 nontraditional risk biomarkers. METHODS AND RESULTS: Analyses used prospective observational data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys among those aged 40 to 79 years (N=4677). Vital status was ascertained through 2011, during which there were 850 deaths, 206 from cardiovascular disease (CVD). We regressed CVD and all-cause mortality on standardized values of self-rated health in survival models, adjusting for age, sex, education, existing chronic disease, race/ethnicity, ASCVD risk, and standardized biomarkers (fibrinogen, C-reactive protein [CRP], triglycerides, albumin, and uric acid). In sociodemographically adjusted models, a 1-SD decrease in self-rated health was associated with increased risk of CVD mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.92; 95% CI, 1.51-2.45; P<0.001), and this hazard remained strong after adjusting for ASCVD risk and nontraditional biomarkers (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.42-2.26; P<0.001). Self-rated health also predicted all-cause mortality even after adjustment for ASCVD risk and nontraditional biomarkers (HR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.35-1.66; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Self-rated health provides prognostic information beyond that captured by traditional ASCVD risk assessments and by nontraditional CVD biomarkers. Consideration of self-rated health in combination with traditional risk factors may facilitate risk assessment and clinical care.