Lower Death Risk at Every Step Up in Heart Health, Even in the Oldest Adults

CATEGORY: HEALTHY AGING & LONGEVITY

Across a large study spanning midlife all the way to people past age 100, better cardiovascular health—the overall condition of your heart and blood vessels—was linked to a lower risk of dying, and the benefit followed a near-linear pattern, meaning each step up in heart health was tied to a further drop in risk.¹ The link held even among the very oldest: centenarians with the healthiest scores had roughly a 55% lower risk of death than those with the least healthy scores. Because this was an observational study, it shows an association rather than proof of cause.

Life’s Essential 8 Rates Eight Everyday Factors

The researchers used a widely recognized checklist called Life’s Essential 8, a score developed by the American Heart Association that rates cardiovascular health across eight everyday factors: your eating pattern, physical activity, exposure to tobacco or nicotine, sleep, body weight, blood cholesterol (fatty substances in the blood), blood sugar, and blood pressure. Each person received an overall score placing them in a low, moderate, or high cardiovascular-health group. The point of combining eight factors is that heart health rarely rests on any single habit or number—it reflects how these pieces add up together.

More Than 31,000 People Aged 30 to 116

The analysis drew on more than 31,000 people ranging in age from 30 to 116, combining a large general-population health study with a dedicated cohort of centenarians—people who have lived to 100 or beyond. Researchers calculated each participant’s cardiovascular-health score and then tracked who died over the follow-up period, comparing death rates across the low, moderate, and high groups at different life stages. Pooling ordinary adults with the exceptionally long-lived let the team see whether the heart-health advantage that matters in midlife still carried weight at the far edge of the human lifespan. The authors say the findings challenge therapeutic nihilism in the oldest old, the view that heart health measures no longer matter at very advanced ages.¹

Activity and Body Weight Stood Out Among Centenarians

Among centenarians, two of the eight factors—being physically active and maintaining a healthy body weight—appeared especially closely tied to lower mortality. That does not mean the other components stopped mattering, but it hints that staying mobile and avoiding excess weight may carry particular weight in the oldest years. The near-linear shape of the overall relationship is also worth noting: there was no single threshold you had to clear, but rather a steady gradient in which better cardiovascular health lined up with lower risk across the board.

Healthier People May Differ in Unmeasured Ways

Because the study is observational, it cannot prove that improving these eight factors causes a longer life—healthier people may differ in other ways the study could not fully capture. What it does offer is a reassuring, consistent signal: the same measures of heart and blood-vessel health that doctors already watch in midlife appear to remain relevant much later in life.

Review of 46 Studies Found 56% Lower Risk

The pattern isn’t unique to this study. A 2025 review pooling 46 long-term studies that tracked people’s cardiovascular health scores and later deaths found that those with the healthiest scores had a 56% lower risk of dying from any cause than those with the least healthy scores, with risk falling steadily as scores rose rather than at a single cut-off.² These were observational studies, so they show association rather than cause.

Key Takeaways

• Higher cardiovascular health, scored across eight everyday factors, was associated with lower death risk from midlife into the centenarian years—a near-linear trend, not an all-or-nothing threshold.
• Even among people past 100, the healthiest scores were linked to roughly 55% lower mortality than the least healthy; this is an association, not proof of cause.
• Physical activity and a healthy body weight stood out among the very oldest adults.

References

1. Chen S, Wang S, He B, Yang S, Han K, Shi Y, et al. Life’s essential 8 and longevity: the sustained impact of cardiovascular health on mortality from middle age to centenarians. npj Aging. 2026;s41514-026-00395-5. link
2. Li G, Zhang Y, Wu Q, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between cardiovascular health determined by life’s essential 8 and risk of mortality and major non-communicable diseases. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. 2025;12:1612056. link.