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Introduction The American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 includes seven metrics of ideal cardiovascular health to target for cardiovascular disease prevention. This study determined the relationship between Life's Simple 7 and incident peripheral artery disease in a biracial cohort of middle- and older-aged adults. Methods This analysis included 12,865 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study recruited between 1987 and 1989 (mean age=54years, 55% women, 25% black) and free of peripheral artery disease or other cardiovascular disease at baseline. Overall, Life's Simple 7 score was calculated as the sum of the Life's Simple 7 component scores (two points if ideal, one point if intermediate, and zero if poor) and classified as inadequate (zero to four), average (five to nine), or optimal (ten to 14) cardiovascular health and linked to incident peripheral artery disease identified by hospital discharge diagnosis and leg revascularization. Analysis was conducted in 2017. Results A total of 434 incident peripheral artery disease cases occurred over a median follow-up of 24.4years. Compared with the inadequate category (n=1,008), participants in the average (n=8,395) and optimal (n=3,462) categories each had a substantially lower risk of developing peripheral artery disease in a Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for potential confounders (hazard ratio=0.36, 95% CI=0.28, 0.46 for average, and hazard ratio=0.09, 95% CI=0.06, 0.15 for optimal). In a similar model, a one-point higher Life's Simple 7 score was associated with a 25% lower risk of incident peripheral artery disease (hazard ratio=0.75, 95% CI=0.72, 0.79). Conclusions Better cardiovascular health, as defined by higher Life's Simple 7 score, is associated with a substantially lower risk of peripheral artery disease.

Background This study utilized an existing national database of cases of non-accidental head injury (NAHI; also called inflicted traumatic brain injury [inflicted TBI] and shaken baby syndrome [SBS]) in Scotland to report the incidence, confidence intervals, and demography of such cases in Southeast Scotland. Methods This prospective population-based study was conducted from January 1998 to September 2006. Data from the Lothian region of Scotland, where there is known full ascertainment of infant head injuries, including NAHI, have been used to calculate the incidence rate for this region of Scotland, with government statistics providing the normal annual infant population as the denominator. A new Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which assesses a very focused area (data zone population size=750) and provides novel information about social demography for education, housing, employment, health, crime, income, and geographic accessibility to services, was applied to the identified cases of NAHI during this study period. Results The mean incidence of NAHI in southeast Scotland for 8.75 years was 33.8/100,000 infants per year. The cases of NAHI were mostly located in the lowest 1 (or 2) quintiles for all SIMD domains (education, housing, employment, health, crime, income), although they had good accessibility to medical and other community services. Conclusions The incidence rates from this prospective study for NAHI are considerably higher than other published UK surveys and are not considered to reflect a cluster effect. The perpetrators in this study fit a strongly skewed profile aggregating to the lowest socioeconomic groups in the community.