Fewer than 5% of U.S. military veterans may achieve optimal cardiovascular health based on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8™ metrics, according to a new scientific statement published today in the Association’s flagship journal, Circulation. The finding, released via NEWMEDIAWIRE, highlights an urgent opportunity to improve prevention and help veterans live longer, healthier lives.
The statement, “Cardiovascular Health Promotion for U.S. Veterans: Current State, Gaps, and Strategies,” is devoted specifically to promoting cardiovascular health among military veterans. It applies the Life’s Essential 8 framework—healthy eating, physical activity, avoiding tobacco, healthy sleep, healthy weight, and healthy levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure—and additionally considers mental health and substance use.
For context, the American Heart Association notes that around 20% of the general U.S. adult population may achieve optimal cardiovascular health. The stark gap for veterans underscores the outsized burden of heart disease and stroke risk factors in this population.
“Veterans are not simply older adults who happen to have served in the military. They are a diverse population with unique health risks shaped by their military service, chronic conditions, mental health, service-related exposures and barriers to care,” said Neal Yuan, M.D., chair of the scientific statement volunteer writing group and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. “Recognizing how these factors interact and influence well-being is essential to providing effective prevention and treatment.”
The statement identifies multiple chronic conditions affecting veterans, including obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, sleep disorders, chronic lung disease and chronic kidney disease. Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder can each independently double the risk of major cardiovascular disease, while substance use disorder is linked to shortening lifespan by 6 to 24 years. Lower-quality diets, physical activity below recommendations, military-related injuries, environmental exposures and barriers to care such as rural residence and limited internet connectivity further compound risk.
Approximately 9 million veterans—nearly half of the U.S. military veteran population—are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system. The statement notes that VA programs addressing coordinated primary care, nutrition, physical activity, weight management, mental health, sleep, substance use and telehealth may offer models for other health systems. Strategies include expanding access to healthy foods and nutrition programs, tailoring physical activity goals, improving screening and treatment for cardiometabolic conditions, expanding mental health and substance use support, and using telehealth and home-based tools such as at-home blood pressure monitoring to reach veterans facing barriers to in-person care.
“Improving cardiovascular health among veterans requires a comprehensive, whole-person approach that goes beyond traditional heart disease prevention,” Yuan said. “Addressing lifestyle factors, metabolic health, mental health, sleep and the social factors that influence health together can help veterans live longer, healthier lives.”
The American Heart Association also supports veterans through its Women Veterans and Heart Health initiative and its Military & Veterans Network Employee Resource Group. “This scientific statement shines an important light on the disproportionate burden of cardiovascular disease among those who serve or have served our country,” said Mariell Jessup, M.D., chief science and medical officer of the American Heart Association.
The full manuscript will be available manuscript online after November 11, 2026. Additional resources include a Spanish news release and American Heart Association News. The Association receives more than 85% of its revenue from sources other than corporations, with overall financial information available here.
