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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.

Sec. Neuroepidemiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1563288

Sustained High Life's Essential 8 Is Associated With Lower Risk of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: A Community-Based Study

Provisionally accepted
Huijing  ShiHuijing Shi1*Ying  HuiYing Hui1Xiaoshuai  LiXiaoshuai Li2Rong  ShuRong Shu1Haicheng  SongHaicheng Song1Jierui  WangJierui Wang1Ping  YuPing Yu1Shuohua  ChenShuohua Chen1Jing  LiJing Li3Xiaoliang  LiangXiaoliang Liang1Chunyu  RuanChunyu Ruan1Jing  ChenJing Chen1Liufu  CuiLiufu Cui1Zhenchang  WangZhenchang Wang2Shouling  WuShouling Wu1
  • 1Kailuan General Hospital, Tangshan, China
  • 2Beijing Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Beijing Friendship Hospital,Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 3Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the influence of Life's Essential 8(LE8) score trajectories on cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Methods: A total of 1162 subjects from the Kailuan prospective cohort study were enrolled. The LE8 score trajectories were developed from 2006 to 2021 using trajectory modeling of the SAS procedure Proc Traj. Participants were classified into three trajectory models: low stable group, medium stable group, and high stable group. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed at the last follow-up. Ordered logistic regression and binary logistic regression models were employed to analyze the association between LE8 trajectory groups and the total CSVD score. Furthermore, we examined the relationship between LE8 trajectory groups and Various CSVD Lesions: lacunar infarcts, cerebral microbleeds (CMB), white matter hyperintensities (WMH), and enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS).Results: 1. There is a negative association between sustained high LE8 scores and the risk of CSVD. The odds ratios (OR) for an increased risk of elevated CSVD scores in the medium and high stable groups compared to the low stable group were 0.65 (95% CI: 0.47-0.88) and 0.44 (95% CI: 0.30-0.63), both of which were statistically significant. 2. LE8 had the most significant impact on lacunar infarcts, EPVS and WMH. The ORs for an increased risk of lacunar infarcts in the medium and high stable groups compared to the low stable group were 0.56 (95% CI: 0.37-0.86) and 0.25 (95% CI: 0.14-0.47), respectively. The ORs for an increased risk of BG-EPVS were 0.49 (95% CI: 0.30-0.81) and 0.31 (95% CI: 0.18-0.54), respectively. The ORs for an increased risk of WMH were 0.49(95% CI: 0.64-1.38) and 0.58 (95% CI: 0.36-0.95), respectively. However, LE8 showed no statistically significant impact on CMB.Conclusions: In summary, our study revealed that sustained high Life's Essential 8 scores have a protective effect against cerebral small vessel disease.

Keywords: Life's Essential 8, Cardiovascular health, Cerebral small vessel disease, trajectories, risk

Received: 19 Jan 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Shi, Hui, Li, Shu, Song, Wang, Yu, Chen, Li, Liang, Ruan, Chen, Cui, Wang and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Huijing Shi, Kailuan General Hospital, Tangshan, China

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