Background: In 2010 the
American Heart Association (AHA) released the positive concept of ideal
cardiovascular health (CVH) aiming to improve the population’s health by setting
goals and targets reachable with a healthy lifestyle. According to AHA, ideal
CVH consists of not smoking, eating a healthy diet, and being physically
active, together with maintaining normal weight, total cholesterol, blood
pressure and fasting glucose.

Aims: The aim of the
present study was to identify the prevalence of ideal CVH in females working in
the municipal sector, and to study the relationships of ideal CVH metrics with
the non-traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.

Participants and methods: The
present study is part of the PORTAAT (PORi To Aid Against Threats) study
designed to evaluate CVD risk factors among the employees of the city of Pori,
Finland. Female participants of the 2014 study were included in this thesis with
no exclusion criteria (n=732, age-range 19-66 years). Classical CVD risk
factors were studied with the ideal CVH metrics of AHA, and health questionnaires
were filled in by the subjects, including core questions about psychosocial
risk factors, UWES-9 (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale), and self-rated health.
Also, physical capability (grip strength, chair-rise time, one-legged standing
balance, and six minutes’ walking test) was measured.

Results: All 7 ideal CVH
metrics were achieved only by 1.2% of the subjects, while 25.0% fulfilled 5-7
of the ideal CVH metrics. Psychosocial risk factors had a negative relationship,
while work engagement had a positive relationship with the sum of ideal CVH
metrics. The presence of even one psychosocial risk factor had the potential to
associate negatively with work engagement regardless of the sum of ideal CVH
metrics. In addition, even among women with 5–7 ideal CVH metrics, over 50.0%
had at least one psychosocial risk factor. Our study also revealed that the sum
of ideal CVH metrics positively associated with good self-rated health driven
by favorable health behaviors (nonsmoking, normal body mass index, healthy diet
and physical activity). Moreover, physical capability was related to the sum of
ideal CVH metrics, as well as the categories of recommended level of aerobic
physical activity.

Conclusions: Ideal CVH was
rare among female employees. Furthermore, all studied non-traditional CVD risk
factors had an association with the ideal CVH concept. However, the causal
relationship of the associations remains unsolved due to the cross-sectional study
design.