US Cardiometabolic Health at Alarming Suboptimal Levels, Says Lead Author of New NHANES Analysis

Only about 1 in 15 Americans currently has optimal or good cardiometabolic health, a figure Meghan O'Hearn, MS, describes as "alarming" and that "suggests the urgency of of reversing this trend at an entire system's level."

Cardiometabolic health in the US has been in steady decline over the past 2 decades, said O'Hearn in an interview with Patient Care^®. She is the lead author of a new analysis of NHANES data by a team at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, where she is a doctoral candidate.

In this first of 3 conversations, O'Hearn discusses context for the research and the twist the Friedman School team added to traditional research on cardiometabolic disease and risk factors over time.

Part 2: Intermediate Cardiometabolic Risk: Study Author Explains this "Critical Infection Point"

Part 3: Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Key Cardiometabolic Measures Amplified by New Research

Meghan O’Hearn, MS, is a doctoral student at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University under the mentorship of Dariush Mozaffarian, MD. O'Hearn's research focus incudes understanding the use of dietary quality metrics to monitor global diet-related disease burdens as well as how research can collaborate with the food industry to address the growing double burden of malnutrition globally.

Reference: O'Hearn M, Lauren BN, Wong JB, Kim DD, Mozzafarian D. Trends and disparities in cardiometabolic health among US adults, 1999-2018. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022. Published online ahead of print July 4, 2022. https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.04.046