Association of sarcopenia with ideal cardiovascular health metrics among US adults: a cross-sectional study of NHANES data from 2011 to 2018

OBJECTIVE: The American Heart Association (AHA) proposed the concept of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality. We attempted to broaden the impact of CVH and further contribute to AHA 2030 goals by identifying the relationship between CVH and non-cardiovascular diseases such as sarcopenia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey SETTING: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in the USA from 2011 to 2018. PARTICIPANTS: This study included participants with reliable first 24-hour dietary recall and ≥20 years of age and excluded those who could not diagnose sarcopenia or insufficient data to calculate the CVH scores. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The prevalence of sarcopenia as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: This cohort study involving 9326 adults≥20 years comprised 4733 females (50.0%). The number of intermediate or ideal and poor CVH participants was 5654 and 3672 with mean CVH score of 9.70±0.03 and 5.66±0.04, respectively. After adjusting for related confounding factors, intermediate or ideal CVH was associated with an odds reduction of sarcopenia than poor CVH (adjusted OR (aOR): 0.36, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.50, p<0.001) and the odds of sarcopenia was significantly lower for each incremental increase of 1 in CVH metrics (aOR: 0.75, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.79, p<0.001). Moreover, if the number of ideal CVH metrics was>5, the odds of sarcopenia decreased by up to 84% (aOR: 0.16, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.30). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a relationship between the CVH and the prevalence of sarcopenia in adults. The results of our study can contribute to achieving the 2030 public health goal of achieving CVH for all, which may be supported by efforts to reduce the prevalence of sarcopenia.