ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Physiol.

Sec. Lipid and Fatty Acid Research

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1538938

Exploring the impact of individual components of the Life's Essential 8 on the relationship between atherogenic index of plasma and adverse cardiovascular events: a population-based cohort study in China

Provisionally accepted
Fei  WuFei Wu1Jiantong  YangJiantong Yang1Yipei  ZhangYipei Zhang2*
  • 1Jiangxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
  • 2Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China

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

The American Heart Association (AHA) recently emphasized the significance of the "Life's Essential 8" in promoting cardiovascular health. The Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) is increasingly recognized as a valuable alternative biomarker for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and insulin resistance-related metabolic diseases. However, the impact of the individual components of the "Life's Essential 8" on the association between AIP and CVD has not been adequately investigated.We conducted an analysis of data from 8,246 participants enrolled in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Lifestyle behaviors and health factors were classified into binary or tertiary categories according to risk levels. We employed multivariate logistic regression and smooth curve fitting techniques to investigate the association between AIP and CVD across varying groups of health behaviors and factors. Additionally, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized to assess the predictive value of combining healthy behaviors, factors, and AIP in forecasting the incidence of CVD.Results: Upon adjusting for established cardiovascular risk factors, elevated AIP levels correlated with a heightened CVD risk (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-1.43). Significant interactions between AIP and CVD risk were observed across subgroups differentiated by blood glucose levels, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and sleep duration (P for interaction <0.05). Notably, individuals with blood glucose levels ≥6.1 mmol/L (OR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.33-1.56) or LDL-C ≥3.12 mmol/L (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.37-1.65) exhibited a more pronounced association between AIP and CVD.Furthermore, the inclusion of AIP in the model alongside traditional risk factors notably enhanced the predictive accuracy for CVD events, as evidenced by an increase in the area under the curve (AUC) from 0.651 to 0.671.Health behaviors (sleep duration), and health factors, including glucose and LDLcholesterol levels, may modulate the posstive relationship between the AIP and CVD events in middleaged and elderly individuals. AIP may offer enhanced predictive value for CVD in patients suffering from diabetes or dyslipidemia.

Keywords: Atherogenic index of plasma, cardiovascular disease, Life's Essential 8, health behaviors, Health factors

Received: 03 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Yang and Zhang. 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: Yipei Zhang, Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.