Better Life's Essential 8 Is Associated With Lower Risk of Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Community‐Based Study

BACKGROUND: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a common diabetic complication and increases the complexity of diabetes management. No prospective study has focused on the association between DKD and Life's Essential 8 (LE8). Our study aims to examine the association between LE8 and DKD risk. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 7605 participants, aged 54.32±9.77 years, and 4688 participants, aged 56.11±10.38 years, were included in the longitudinal and trajectory analyses, respectively, from 2006 to 2020. The DKD was confirmed using data collected during each follow‐up. LE8 was based on 4 health behaviors and 4 health factors. The range of each metric was 0 to 100, and the overall LE8 score was calculated as the unweighted average of all 8 component metric scores. The trajectories of LE8 during 2006 to 2010 were classified using latent mixture models. Cox models and restricted cubic splines were applied. After a median follow‐up of 12.41 and 6.71 years in longitudinal and trajectory analyses, respectively, the DKD incidence decreased, with the LE8 level increasing (P‐trend<0.05), and the linearity assumption for this relationship (P‐nonlinear=0.685) had been satisfied. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for the highest tertile were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.69–0.87) and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.62–0.78) in baseline and time‐updated LE8 scores, respectively, compared with the lowest tertile. Adjusted HR was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.41–0.69) for the stable‐high pattern compared with the stable‐low pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Although LE8 is an indicator of cardiovascular health, the beneficial impact of a high LE8 score is also evident in the protection of renal health among patients with diabetes.