After an average follow-up of 22 years, one-third of the participants who did not follow any of the seven ideals developed chronic kidney disease, compared to only 6.5 percent of those who followed at least six of the ideals.
Cholesterol and diet were not found to be associated with a higher risk of kidney disease, but body fat, blood pressure, lack of physical activity, and smoking did.
Study author Casey Rebholz said, “This study was the first to show that for people who are generally healthy, a higher number of ideal Life’s Simple 7 health factors is associated with a reduced risk of new-onset kidney disease. Attaining ideal cardiovascular health as defined by the AHA Life’s Simple 7 metric may have substantial benefit for preventing the development of kidney disease. Recommending these ideal health factors may be effective as a population-wide strategy for kidney disease prevention.”