A new study has found that only 1 in 5 women going through menopause have optimal heart health scores based on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) assessment.
This tool measures key factors that influence long-term cardiovascular health.
The study identified sleep, blood glucose, blood pressure, and smoking habits as major predictors of future heart risks, with sleep standing out as especially important.
The findings were published on July 8 in the journal Menopause by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Baylor University.
“Previously we’ve shown that the menopause transition is a time of accelerating cardiovascular risk,” said Dr. Samar R. El Khoudary, senior author and professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “This study underscores that it’s also an opportunity for women to take the reins on their heart health.”
Researchers used health data from about 3,000 women in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a long-term, multi-site study that began in 1996.
The women’s heart health was assessed starting around age 46 and tracked over time to see how their scores predicted health outcomes, including artery thickening, heart attacks, strokes, and even death.
LE8 evaluates eight components of cardiovascular health: diet, physical activity, smoking, sleep, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. In this study, four factors—blood glucose, blood pressure, sleep, and nicotine use—were most strongly linked to future heart disease and death.
Among these, sleep quality was especially significant. Women who consistently got seven to nine hours of sleep—a benchmark set by LE8—were more likely to have better long-term heart health and live longer. However, sleep was not linked to shorter-term effects like thickening of the carotid artery.
“These findings suggest that healthy sleep in midlife could be a strong predictor of better heart health later in life,” said Ziyuan Wang, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. candidate at Pitt Public Health. Wang added that future clinical trials are needed to confirm the impact of sleep on women’s heart health.
Overall, women with lower total LE8 scores had higher risks of heart problems and death. Yet, only 21% of midlife women in the study achieved ideal LE8 scores, showing a need for more awareness and better lifestyle habits during menopause.
“With heart disease being the leading cause of death in women, these findings point to the need for lifestyle and medical interventions to improve heart health during and after menopause among midlife women,” said El Khoudary.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies about a big cause of heart failure, and common blood test could advance heart failure treatment.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about a new way to repair human heart, and results showing drinking coffee may help reduce heart failure risk.
The study is published in Menopause.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
