Background: Food environments have been linked to cardiovascular diseases; however, few studies have assessed the relationship between food environments and the risk of heart failure (HF). We aimed to evaluate the association between ready-to-eat food environments and incident HF at an individual level in a large prospective cohort.
Methods: Exposure to ready-to-eat food environments, comprising pubs or bars, restaurants or cafeterias, and fast-food outlets, were individually measured as both proximity and density metrics. We also developed a composite ready-to-eat food environment density score by summing the densities of 3 types of food environments. Cox proportional analyses were applied to assess the associations of each single type and the composite food environments with HF risk.
Results: Closer proximity to and greater density of ready-to-eat food environments, particularly for pubs and bars and fast-food outlets (P<0.05 for both proximity and density metric) were associated with an elevated risk of incident HF. Compared with those with no exposure to composite ready-to-eat food environments, participants in the highest density score category had a 16% (8%-25%; P<0.0001) higher risk of HF. In addition, we found significant interactions of food environments with education, urbanicity, and density of physical activity facilities on HF risk (all Pinteraction<0.05); the ready-to-eat food environments-associated risk of HF was stronger among participants who were poorly educated, living in urban areas, and without physical activity facilities.
Conclusions: Exposure to ready-to-eat food environments is associated with a higher risk of incident HF, suggesting the potential importance of minimizing unfavorable food environments in the prevention of HF.
Keywords: cohort studies; fast foods; heart failure; public health; urbanization.