American Heart Association's life simple 7 and the risk of atrial fibrillation in the PREDIMED study cohort.

Background And Aims: The American Heart Association proposed 7 ideal cardiovascular health metrics (Life's Simple 7 [LS7]) namely, not smoking, body mass index <25 kg/m, healthy diet, moderate physical activity ≥150 min/week, total blood cholesterol <200 mg/dL, blood pressure <120/80 mmHg and fasting blood glucose <100 mg/dL. Our objective was to assess the association between these LS7 metrics and the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods And Results: A total of 6,479 participants of the PREDIMED study were included. We calculated the participants' baseline LS7 index ranging 0-7 points to categorize them according to their adherence to these LS7 health metrics. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate Hazard Ratios (HR) and their 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI). After a median follow-up of 4.8 years, we identified 250 incident cases of AF. After adjusting for potential confounders, adherence to LS7 index was not associated with the incidence of AF (adjusted HR 0.90 [95% CI: 0.56-1.45] for highest vs. lowest LS7 categories). Body mass index <25 kg/m was the only health metric individually associated with a lower risk of AF (HR 0.36 [95% CI: 0.16-0.78]).

Conclusions: In a high cardiovascular risk Spanish population, adherence to American Heart Association's LS7 metrics was not associated with the risk of incident AF.

Clinical Trials Number: ISRCTN35739639.