DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1986313/v1
Background: Lifestyle risk behaviours such as smoking, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet account for a considerable disease burden worldwide. These lifestyle behaviours tend to cluster within an individual that could have synergetic effects on health. In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of lifestyle risk behaviour clustering (smoking, poor fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol intake, physical inactivity, prolonged sitting, and poor sleep) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD risk among adults in the United Kingdom (UK).
Methods: We used baseline (2006-2010) data from the UK Biobank. We performed a latent class (LC) analysis with distal outcomes model to identify and estimate the effect of clustering of lifestyle risk behaviours and socio-demographic characteristics on CVD and CVD risk. LC measurement models were estimated first, followed by an auxiliary model conditional on LC variables. Continuous and binary outcomes were reported as mean differences (MD) and odds ratios (OR), respectively, with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).
Results: We included 283,172 participants who had data on CVD status (52.6% males). Clustering of multiple lifestyle risk behaviours (physically inactive, poor fruit & vegetable intake, high alcohol intake, and prolonged sitting) had a 3.29 mean increase in CVD risk relative to high alcohol intake. In addition, adults with three lifestyle risk behaviours (physically inactive, poor fruit & vegetable intake, and high alcohol intake) had 25.18 higher odds of having CVD than those with two lifestyle risk behaviours (physically inactive, and poor fruit and vegetable intake). Social deprivation, gender and age were also associated with CVD.
Conclusion: Individuals' LC membership with two or more lifestyle risk behaviours had a determinantal effect on CVD. Interventions targeting multiple lifestyle behaviours and social circumstances should be prioritized to reduce CVD burden.