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Monday, December 12, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Total cholesterol levels have decreased among middle age and older Americans since the first Minnesota Heart Survey (MHS) was conducted in 1980-1982, investigators report. However, cholesterol concentrations have leveled off among people in the 25-to-34 age group, and in some cases have even increased.
The MHS has been conducted five times between 1980 and 2002 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, and included approximately 5,000 randomly selected adults each time. Lead investigator Dr. Donna K. Arnett, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her associates point out that cholesterol levels in the MHS have mirrored national trends.
Overall, average non-fasting, age-adjusted total cholesterol concentrations have declined from 5.49 to 5.16 unites in men and from 5.38 to 5.09 units in women, the investigators report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Significant 20-year decreases in cholesterol levels -- apparently related to the 20-year increases in use of lipid-lowering drugs -- were observed for men and women in all age groups except the 25- to 34-year-olds, among whom significant increases have been observed in the more recent surveys.
The authors also found that 54.9 percent of men and 46.5 percent of women in the 2000-2002 survey had cholesterol levels at or above the 5.18 unit cutpoint, a level significantly lower than in earlier years.
The proportion of subjects who were unaware of their high cholesterol, however, remained at greater than 50 percent, which "points to the continued need for improved screening," the investigators write.
Six percent of women and 13.1 percent of men were successfully treating their condition, the authors report, while approximately 6 percent were aware of and treating their high cholesterol levels but were not successful at bringing them down to normal.
"The MHS data reinforce that improved screening alone is insufficient," Arnett's group indicates. "We must continue to encourage behavioral, dietary, and pharmacological control of cholesterol in those individuals who are aware of their cholesterol risk." |
