American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 126, No. 2: 268-279
Copyright © 1987 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
research-article |
PARENT-OFFSPRING AGGREGATION OF PLASMA LIPIDS IN SELECTED POPULATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA AND ISRAEL
THE LIPID RESEARCH CLINICS PREVALENCE STUDY
1Jerusalem Lipid Research Clinic, Department of Medicine B, Hadassah University Hospital Jerusalem, Israel
2Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC
3Lipid Research Clinics Program and Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC
4Department of Social Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine Jerusalem, Israel
5Lipid Metabolism-Atherogenesis Branch, DHVD, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health Federal Building, Room 401, Bethesda, MD 20892
Lipid Metabolism-Atherogenesis Branch, DHVD, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Federal Building, Room 401, Bethesda, MD 20892. (Reprint requests to Dr. Basil M. Rifkind at this address.)
Parent-offspring associations of total cholesterol and triglycerides were compared between family dyads in six North American populations examined between 1972 and 1976 as part of the North American Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study and those from families examined between 1976 and 1979 at the Lipid Research Clinic located in Jerusalem. Common study design, protocol, and laboratory techniques were used by all Upid Research Clinics. The authors first examined homogeneity of familial correlations across dinics in the North American population and across origin groups in the Israeli sample. In general, correlations were homogeneous across clinics and origin groups, except for parent-daughter pairs for triglycerides in North America. The pooled famIlial correlations were similar in the two study populations. There was no asymmetry in parent- offspring correlations by the sex of the offspring. The pooled mother-child correlations were significantly higher than father-child values in the North American sample only. The strength of parent-offspring similarity showed no consistent pattern of change with level of education of parents in either study group. Patterns of familial similarity are discussed in relation to genetic, cultural, and environmental differences between the two study populations.
cross-cultural comparison; family characteristics; lipids