Fewer than 5% of U.S. military veterans may achieve optimal cardiovascular health based on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8™ metrics, according to a new scientific statement published in the Association’s flagship journal, Circulation. The finding highlights an urgent opportunity to improve prevention and help veterans live longer, healthier lives. By comparison, the Association notes that around 20% of the general U.S. adult population may achieve optimal cardiovascular health.
The statement, “Cardiovascular Health Promotion for U.S. Veterans: Current State, Gaps, and Strategies,” is devoted specifically to promoting cardiovascular health among military veterans. It applies the Life’s Essential 8 framework—healthy eating, physical activity, avoiding tobacco, healthy sleep, healthy weight, and healthy levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure—and additionally considers mental health and substance use.
“Veterans are not simply older adults who happen to have served in the military. They are a diverse population with unique health risks shaped by their military service, chronic conditions, mental health, service-related exposures and barriers to care,” said Neal Yuan, M.D., chair of the scientific statement volunteer writing group and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. “Recognizing how these factors interact and influence well-being is essential to providing effective prevention and treatment.”
The statement identifies multiple chronic conditions—obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, sleep disorders, chronic lung and kidney disease—as well as mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, each of which can independently double the risk of major cardiovascular disease. Substance use disorder is linked to shortening lifespan by 6 to 24 years. Lower-quality diets, physical inactivity, military-related injuries, environmental exposures and barriers to care, including rural residence and limited internet connectivity, further compound risk.
To address these gaps, the statement outlines strategies such as expanding access to healthy foods and weight-management programs, tailoring physical activity goals, improving screening and treatment for cardiometabolic conditions, expanding mental health and substance use support, increasing sleep disorder screening, and using telehealth and home-based tools such as at-home blood pressure monitoring.
Approximately 9 million veterans—nearly half of the U.S. veteran population—are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system. The statement notes that VA programs, including Patient Aligned Care Teams, MOVE! and Whole Health, and telehealth initiatives, may offer models for other health systems. “Improving cardiovascular health among veterans requires a comprehensive, whole-person approach that goes beyond traditional heart disease prevention,” Yuan said.
The Association also supports veterans through its Women Veterans and Heart Health initiative and its Military & Veterans Network Employee Resource Group. “This scientific statement shines an important light on the disproportionate burden of cardiovascular disease among those who serve or have served our country,” said Mariell Jessup, M.D., chief science and medical officer of the American Heart Association. The full statement is available manuscript online, with additional context in Veterans’ unique heart-health risks call for personalized care and a related release, New Guidance Introduces Framework for Assessing Cardiovascular Risk and Fitness for Duty in Tactical Athletes. A Spanish news release is also available, and the original release can be viewed on www.newmediawire.com.
