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• Posted August 20, 2025

Seniors Neglecting Steps To Protect Heart Health, Study Says

Seniors with known heart-related problems aren’t doing a very good job taking steps to protect their health, a new study says.

Older folks with high blood pressure, stroke survivors and heart failure patients in the United States all have been neglecting Life’s Essential 8 — a checklist of lifestyle factors that can protect heart health, researchers found.

“On average, participants with one cardiovascular disease had a Life’s Essential 8 score 9 points lower than those without cardiovascular disease,” lead researcher James Walker, a medical student at Northwestern University in Chicago, said in a news release.

Life’s Essential 8 recommends that people eat healthy, exercise, avoid smoking, sleep better, lose excess weight, and manage their cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels, according to the American Heart Association.

For this study, researchers analyzed a sample of more than 3,000 adults 65 and older who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2013 and 2018. The team used people’s responses to estimate their adherence to Life’s Essential 8.

Results showed that people with one or more heart-related health problems had an average score below 60 out of 100, while those without heart problems had an average score of 68.

This gap was mainly due to differences in blood pressure control and exercise, Walker said.

“Physical activity and blood pressure scores tended to be very low for people with cardiovascular disease,” Walker said.

What’s more, people’s scores tended to decline with each additional heart-related problem they had, researchers found.

And over time, patients’ adherence to Life’s Essential 8 dropped by:

• 4% among people with high blood pressure.

• 12% among stroke survivors.

• 15% among heart failure patients.

• The results indicate that doctors could be doing more to promote healthy behaviors among people with known heart risks, researchers said.

“Health care professionals and physicians should seek to provide support earlier in life to help our elderly population stay healthier for longer,” Walker said.

The AHA “urges everyone to get their best start at good health by following the elements of Life’s Essential 8 early in life, even as young as childhood,” Dr. Stacey Rosen, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, said in a news release. Rosen was not involved in the study.

“It’s also critical that we recognize that our aging population is quickly growing,” added Rosen, who is senior vice president of women’s health and executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health of Northwell Health in New York City. “The last of the Baby Boomers will reach 65 in the next 5 years, and more people are living longer, even after a heart attack or stroke, thanks, in part, to medical advances and improved diagnosis and treatment.”

“We must identify ways to support these older individuals with information and resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle in every way they can, because good health is important at every age,” Rosen concluded.

The new study appears in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on Life’s Essential 8.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, Aug. 20, 2025