Associations of Neighborhood Food and Physical Activity Environments in Young Adulthood With Cardiovascular Health in Midlife: The CARDIA Study

BACKGROUND: Adults who maintain ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) profiles up to midlife have lower risk of several chronic diseases and better quality of life. Some evidence suggests that individual-level exposures earlier in life shape midlife CVH, but the impact of neighborhood-level exposures over the life course remains understudied. METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants were 3017 Black and White men and women aged 18 to 30 years at baseline (1985– 1986), recruited from Birmingham, Alabama; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Oakland, California, as part of the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study. Measures of the neighborhood food and physical activity environment were linked to participant addresses collected at baseline. CVH was measured on the basis of the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 criteria in young adulthood and 30 years later (2015–2016) when participants were midlife (aged 48–60 years). Associations of young adult neighborhood food environment and physical activity resources with midlife CVH (moderate versus high and low versus high) were examined using multinomial logistic regression. Models were adjusted for young adult sociodemographic factors. Participants who lived farther away from a major park in young adulthood were more likely to have low versus high CVH scores (odds ratio, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.22–1.96]) and more likely to have moderate versus high CVH scores (odds ratio, 1.39 [95% CI, 1.12–1.73]) in midlife. No other neighborhood measures were significantly associated with CVH. CONCLUSIONS: Young adulthood may be a sensitive period in which having convenient access to physical activity–promoting resources may help them establish healthy habits that can carry into midlife.