title: Understanding and Improving Cardiovascular Health: An Update on the American Heart Association's Concept of Cardiovascular Health.
abstract: The American Heart Association's 2020 Strategic Impact Goal is "By 2020, to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20%." To monitor progress towards this goal, a new construct "ideal cardiovascular health" (iCVH) was defined that includes the simultaneous presence of optimal levels of seven health behaviors (physical activity, smoking, dietary intake, and body mass index) and factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose). In this review, we present a summary of major concepts related to the concept of iCVH and an update of the literature in this area since publication of the 2020 Strategic Impact Goal, including trends in iCVH prevalence, new determinants and outcomes related to iCVH, strategies for maintaining or improving iCVH, policy implications of the iCVH model, and the remaining challenges to reaching the 2020 Strategic Impact Goal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Electronic address: chris.shay@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Shay
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Holly S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Gooding
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological, Health and Learning Sciences, College of Education, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Rosenda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Murillo
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Randi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foraker
mesh_terms: D000572:American Heart Association; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D001786:Blood Glucose; D002784:Cholesterol
keywords: Adults; Cardiovascular health; Children; Prevention; Risk factors