Role of Life’s Essential 8 score in mediating socioeconomic status in the incidence of atrial fibrillation and heart failure: a population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score mediates the association of socioeconomic status (SES) with atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF). METHODS: A total of 236,754 participants from the UK Biobank were included. SES was determined based on household income, education attainment, and employment status using latent class analysis. Cox regression was utilized to explore the association of SES with AF and HF after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, and alcohol status. Counterfactual mediation analysis was employed to calculate the mediation proportion of the LE8 score. Stratified analysis was conducted based on age and sex. RESULTS: With a median of 13.61 years of follow-up, 14,635 cases of AF and 6878 cases of HF were documented. The HR (95% CI) of the total effect of SES on AF was 1.43 (1.36, 1.48). The indirect effect mediated by the LE8 score was 1.14 (1.13, 1.15), with the mediation proportion being 40.84 (36.97, 47.01)%. The total effect of SES on HF was 2.44 (2.26, 2.59). The indirect effect was 1.28 (1.25, 1.29), with the mediation proportion being 36.77 (34.59, 39.06)%. The mediation proportion was greater for AF in age < 60 years compared to age ≥ 60 years, and it was also higher in males than females for both AF and HF. CONCLUSION: Approximately one-third of the socioeconomic inequalities in AF and HF could be explained by the LE8 score. These findings highlighted the importance of integrating cardiovascular health promotion into public health policies aimed at mitigating socioeconomic health inequalities.