American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 128, No. 5: 1038-1053
Copyright © 1988 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
research-article |
COMPARING MEAN LEVELS OF TOTAL CHOLESTEROL FROM VISIT 2 OF THE LIPID RESEARCH CLINICS PREVALENCE STUDY WITH THE SECOND NATIONAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEY
1Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC
2Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA
3Lipid Metabolism-Atherogenesis Branch, Division of Heart and Vascular Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD
Reprint requests to Dr. Basil M. Rifkind, Lipid Metabolism-Atherogenesis Branch, Division of Heart and Vascular Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Federal Building, Room 401, 7550 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20892
Mean levels of total cholesterol by sex and age were compared between groups of whites in visit 2 of the Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence Study and in the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II). NHANES II estimates were found to be higher than comparable visit 2 estimates by 3–14 mg/dl for males and by 11–21 mg/dl for females. Adjustment for the use of differing components of blood in making the lipid determinations in the two studies (plasma in visit 2 and serum in NHANES II) reduced the original differences by roughly one half. Other adjustments—for operational differences among laboratories that performed the blood sample analysis in the two studies, for educational differences in the study populations, and for inclusion of data from a Toronto clinic in the visit 2 data—were collectively found to explain most of the remaining differences between visit 2 and NHANES II, especially for males.
lipids; cholesterol