Associations between AHA's Life's Essential 8 and cognition in midlife and older adults

Abstract INTRODUCTION This study evaluated the associations between Life's Essential 8 (LE8) and cognitive performance, and compared the strength of the relationships of Life's Simple 7 (LS7) and LE8 to cognition in midlife and older adults. METHODS Participants ( N = 1539) were from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. Cross‐sectional multivariable regression examined the associations between LE8 and cognition. Secondary analyses compared model performance between LE8 and LS7 measures on cognition from the same available sample. RESULTS Higher LE8 scores were associated with better global cognitive performance, working memory, and attention. The LS7 model outperformed the LE8 model on global cognitive performance, but the LE8 model outperformed the LS7 model for the working memory domain. DISCUSSION Better cardiovascular health (CVH) was associated with better cognitive performance among US middle‐aged and older adults. However, the association between CVH and specific cognitive domains varies when using LE8 versus LS7. Highlights Cardiovascular health (CVH) is associated with cognitive performance. Life's Essential 8 (LE8) is a new construct to quantify CVH. Associations between LE8 and cognition were assessed. Higher LE8 was associated with better global cognitive performance. Higher LE8 was also associated with better working memory and attention.