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Abstract Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, leading global causes of death, share risk factors and frequently coexist. Understanding their underlying mechanisms remains incomplete, particularly regarding the association between cardiovascular health (CVH) and cancer incidence among older adults. Objective This retrospective cohort study determines the association between CVH, indicated by Life's Essential 8 (LE8) metric, and risk of cancer incidence in older Israeli adults. Methods A cohort of 1799 Israeli adults aged 65 or older participated in the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Survey. After excluding individuals with cancer history at baseline, 1541 participants were included. Baseline data, including CVD risk factors, physical activity, diet, and sleep, were used to categorize participants based on the LE8 CVH construct (0-100 scale). Cancer diagnoses were obtained from the Israeli National Cancer Registry until December 2019. Cox Proportional Hazards Regression Models estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for incident cancer, adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Results In this cohort (mean age, 74 years; 53% women), LE8 scores ranged from 7 to 97 mean (SD), 56 (14). Higher LE8 scores were positively associated with age, education, and residential socioeconomic status and inversely related to male sex and Arab ethnicity. Over 11 years of follow-up, 345 participants (22%) were newly diagnosed with cancer. LE8 was inversely associated with cancer incidence adjusted HR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.79-0.98, per 1 standard deviation increase. This association persisted after accounting for death as a competing risk (see figure). The reduced risk was more pronounced in CVD-free participants HR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.74-0.97 (n=936) than in prevalent CVD patients HR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.81-1.21 (n=605). Conclusions Higher LE8 scores, indicative of robust cardiovascular health, were associated with lower long-term cancer incidence in older adults. Integrating LE8 metrics into risk assessment may inform targeted cancer prevention strategies, extending its role beyond cardiovascular health assessment. Cumulative incidence of new cancer cases
Marzooq et al. (Sat,) studied this question.