Cardiovascular health based on life’s essential eight and its association with depressive symptoms in older Mexican adults: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: To examine the association between the Life's Essential 8 (LE8) cardiovascular health index and depressive symptoms among older adults in Mexico. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study analysed data from 700 adults aged ≥55 years (59% women) participating in the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) and the Mex-Cog ancillary study (2015-2016). LE8 comprises eight components-food insecurity, physical activity, smoking, sleep, body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure-each scored from 0 to 100 and classified as high (0-49), moderate (50-79), or low (80-100) cardiovascular health. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), with scores ≥5 indicating probable depression. Binary and multinomial logistic regression models estimated associations, adjusting for age, sex, education, comorbidities, alcohol consumption, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Compared with the low-risk LE8 group, individuals in the high-risk group had significantly higher odds of depressive symptoms (OR 2.84; 95%CI 1.62-4.99). Relative to the moderate-risk group, the high-risk group also showed increased odds (OR 2.47; 95%CI 1.62-4.99). For probable depression (CES-D ≥5), the high-risk group exhibited higher odds compared with both the low-risk (OR 3.47; 95%CI 1.57-7.70) and moderate-risk groups (OR 2.74; 95% CI 1.76-4.28). CONCLUSIONS: Poor cardiovascular health, reflected by lower LE8 scores, was independently associated with greater odds of depressive symptoms in older Mexican adults. These findings support LE8 as a practical framework for identifying individuals at elevated risk and informing integrated cardiovascular and mental health interventions.