Abstract:Objective To investigate the association between the cardiovascular health index based on Life's Essential 8 (LE8) and the risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM) in individuals with single cardiometabolic disease (CMD).Methods The study, based on the UK Biobank prospective cohort, included 20,472 participants divided into three groups according to their LE8 scores: the ideal group (LE8 score ≥ 80), moderate group (50 ≤ LE8 score <80), and lower group (LE8 score < 50). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to estimate the cumulative incidence of CMM across different groups, and Cox proportional hazards regression was employed to examine the association between group classification and the risk of developing CMM.Results During a median follow-up period of 13.6 years, 490 new cases of CMM were recorded. Among these, 146 cases (4.46%) were in the lower group, 336 cases (2.13%) in the moderate group, and 8 cases (0.57%) in the ideal group. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that the cumulative incidence of CMM was highest in the lower group, followed by the moderate group, and lowest in the ideal group (P < 0.05). After adjusting for covariates such as age, sex, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, education level, alcohol consumption, depression, and family history of cardiometabolic disease, Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that, compared with the lower group, the risk of CMM was significantly lower in the moderate group [H^R = 0.438 (95% CI: 0.359, 0.535) ] and the ideal group [H^R = 0.124 (95% CI: 0.061, 0.254) ](P < 0.05).Conclusion In participants with single CMD, increased LE8 scores are significantly correlated with a decreased risk of CMM.