Equity, Environment, and Ethnicity in Cardiovascular Health: Advancing Life-Course Prevention and Precision Public Health

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading contributors to global mortality and disability, with complex etiologies shaped by the interplay of genetic susceptibility, environmental exposures, social conditions, and health system structures. While clinical events such as myocardial infarction or heart failure often represent the culmination of long-term pathological processes, growing evidence highlights the critical role of structural inequities, population-specific risk trajectories, and geographic context in shaping disease burden and outcomes.This Research Topic aims to advance a systems-level understanding of cardiovascular risk by integrating insights from epidemiology, environmental health, digital technology, and population science. Particular emphasis is placed on how ethnic identity, socioeconomic status, environmental stressors, and spatial marginalization interact across the life course to influence cardiovascular vulnerability. Population differences in clinical phenotypes, delays in care, or risk accumulation cannot be addressed without examining upstream determinants such as air pollution, temperature extremes, altitude, urban design, and access to services.We welcome interdisciplinary contributions that explore these interwoven determinants through prospective cohorts, geospatial modeling, risk stratification tools, and life-course frameworks. Submissions that use artificial intelligence, wearable technologies, mobile health platforms, and other digital innovations to enhance surveillance, prediction, and early detection are particularly encouraged. Work that informs precision prevention strategies, context-sensitive screening approaches, and equity-centered cardiovascular policies is especially relevant.By assembling evidence across biological, environmental, technological, and structural domains, this collection seeks to inform a new generation of cardiovascular public health strategies—strategies that are demographically responsive, geographically targeted, and grounded in the principles of health equity.Topics of interest Include:-Ethnic, racial, and sociocultural disparities in cardiovascular disease burden, clinical presentation, and outcomes, shaped by structural inequities, access to care, and social determinants.-Environmental and geographic influences on cardiovascular health, including the roles of air pollution, climate variability, altitude, and urban design in shaping risk distribution and spatial heterogeneity, as well as emerging exposures.-Life-course accumulation of cardiovascular risk, integrating early-life exposures, psychosocial stress, behavioral patterns, and intergenerational influences.-Acute cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, in high-risk or multiethnic populations, with attention to care delays, prevention opportunities, and health system responsiveness.-Population-specific cardiovascular phenotypes related to sex, ethnicity, or geography, and their implications for risk stratification, diagnostic thresholds, and screening strategies.-Risk prediction models incorporating demographic, clinical, behavioral, environmental, and social data, with applications in diverse or resource-limited settings.-Digital and analytical tools, including artificial intelligence, mobile health platforms, wearable technologies, geospatial mapping, and remote sensing, for cardiovascular surveillance, early detection, and precision prevention.-Public health policies, programs, and implementation strategies aimed at reducing disparities in cardiovascular prevention and care, including evaluations of accessibility, quality, and equity impact. Topic editors: Jing Gao, Chen-Xi Jiang, Chutian Zhang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76855/equity-environment-and-ethnicity-in-cardiovascular-health-advancing-life-course-prevention-and-precision-public-health