Validation of “Life's Essential 8” Metrics With Cardiovascular Structural Status in Children: The PROC Study in China

BACKGROUND: Life's Essential 8 (LE8) metrics for cardiovascular health (CVH) aid primordial prevention in US populations. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a child cohort study (PROC [Beijing Child Growth and Health Cohort]) with baseline (2018–2019) and follow‐up (2020–2021) assessments, enrolling disease‐free 6‐ to 10‐year‐old children from 6 elementary schools in Beijing. We collected LE8‐assessed components via questionnaire surveys and 3 cardiovascular structural parameters by 2‐dimensional M‐mode echocardiography: left ventricular mass (LVM), LVM index, and carotid intima‐media thickness. Compared with 1914 participants (mean age, 6.6 years) at baseline, we saw lower mean CVH scores at follow‐up (n=1789; 8.5 years). Among LE8 components, diet presented the lowest perfect‐score prevalence (5.1%). Only 18.6% of participants had physical activity ≥420 min/wk, 55.9% had nicotine exposure, and 25.2% had abnormal sleep duration. Prevalence of overweight/obesity was 26.8% at baseline and 38.2% at follow‐up. We noted optimal blood lipid scores in 30.7%, while 12.9% of children had abnormal fasting glucose. Normal BP was 71.6% at baseline and 60.3% at follow‐up. LVM (g), LVM index (g/m(2.7)), and carotid intima‐media thickness (mm) were significantly lower in children with high (56.8, 33.2, 0.35) or moderate CVH scores (60.6, 34.6, 0.36), compared with children with low CVH scores (67.9, 37.1, 0.37). Adjusting for age/sex, LVM (β=11.8 [95% CI, 3.5–20.0]; P=0.005), LVM index (β=4.4 [95% CI, 0.5–8.3]; P=0.027), and carotid intima‐media thickness (β=0.016 [95% CI, 0.002–0.030]; P=0.028) were higher in the low‐CVH group. CONCLUSIONS: CVH scores were suboptimal, declining with age. LE8 metrics indicated worse CVH in children with abnormal cardiovascular structural measurements, suggesting the validity of LE8 in assessing child CVH. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.chictr.org.cn/index.html; Unique identifier: ChiCTR2100044027.