Internal Medicine · Cardiology · General Practice · 4 h ago
Coexisting cardiovascular, liver and metabolic conditions linked to shorter life expectancy
Two prospective cohorts involving 429,722 UK Biobank and 38,759 NHANES participants linked coexisting cardiovascular disease, MASLD, type 2 diabetes and obesity to higher mortality. Having all four conditions was associated with 6.9–9.5 fewer years of estimated life expectancy at age 50 compared with having none.
- Two prospective cohorts linked increasing disease burden to higher mortality.
- All four conditions were associated with threefold or greater mortality hazards.
- Estimated life expectancy at 50 was 6.9–9.5 years shorter.
- Observational findings do not establish benefits from integrated treatment.
A study in BMC Medicine examined mortality and estimated life expectancy associated with cardiovascular–liver–metabolic disease burden in two prospective cohorts: 429,722 UK Biobank participants and 38,759 NHANES participants. Researchers counted coexisting cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), type 2 diabetes and obesity, defining the presence of all four as the cardiovascular–liver–metabolic syndemic.
Over median follow-ups of 13.7 and 9.5 years, respectively, mortality increased with disease burden. Compared with participants with none of the conditions, those with all four had adjusted all-cause mortality hazard ratios of 3.58 (95% CI 3.42–3.74) in UK Biobank and 3.10 (2.59–3.72) in NHANES. Associations were strongest for cardiovascular mortality, with subdistribution hazard ratios of 8.39 (7.51–9.38) and 3.88 (3.04–4.95), respectively.
At age 50, estimated remaining life expectancy was 36.9 years without these conditions versus 30.0 years with all four in UK Biobank, and 34.3 versus 24.8 years in NHANES. These differences corresponded to 6.9 (95% CI 6.6–7.2) and 9.5 (8.2–10.6) fewer years, respectively.
The findings highlight the relevance of assessing cardiovascular, liver and metabolic conditions together in chronic disease care. However, these observational associations do not establish causality or demonstrate that integrated care improves survival; life expectancy figures were model-based estimates.
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BMC Medicine: The cardiovascular–liver–metabolic syndemic and mortality and life expectancy: two prospective cohort studies ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.