Score of Adherence to 2016 European Cardiovascular Prevention Guidelines Predicts Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality in the General Population.

BACKGROUND

Guidelines on cardiovascular (CV) disease prevention promote healthy lifestyle behaviours and CV risk factor control to reduce CV risk. The effect of adherence to these guidelines on CV and all-cause mortality is not well known.

METHODS

We assessed the effect of baseline adherence to "2016 European Guidelines on CV Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice" on long-term CV and all-cause mortality in a sample recruited from the French general population. Analysis was on the basis of the Third French Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA) population-based survey (recruitment period: 1994-1997). We built an adherence score to European guidelines, considering adherence to recommendations for smoking, drinking, physical activity, body mass index, blood pressure, low-density and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, and diet at baseline. Vital status was obtained 18 years after inclusion. Statistical analysis was on the basis of multivariate Cox modelling.

RESULTS

Adherence score was assessed in 1311 apparently healthy participants aged 35-64 years (73% men). During the follow-up, 186 deaths occurred (41 were due to a CV cause). Considering CV mortality, the adjusted hazard ratio for subjects in the fourth quartile of the adherence score (worse adherence) was 3.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.62-6.01; P = 0.001), compared with subjects in the first, second, or third quartile (best adherence). Considering all-cause mortality, the adjusted hazard ratio for subjects in the fourth quartile of the adherence score was 2.27 (95% CI, 1.68-3.06; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Better baseline adherence to European guidelines on CV disease prevention was associated with a significantly reduced long-term CV and all-cause mortality in a sample from the French general population.