title: The relationship between plasma cholesterol concentration and minor psychiatric disturbance in the Department of the Environment Study.
abstract: We examined the hypothesis that low plasma cholesterol concentration was associated with minor psychiatric disturbance in a cross-sectional study of 410 male and 138 female civil servants. Psychiatric disturbance was measured using the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Mean GHQ score did not vary significantly with quartile of total cholesterol concentration. After adjustment for confounding variables a significant trend of increasing mean GHQ with increasing cholesterol concentration emerged. In a logistic regression analysis subjects in the highest quartile of cholesterol concentration had an adjusted odds ratio for being a "psychiatric case" of 2.0 (95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.5) compared with those in the lowest quartile. This relationship reversed when using a higher cutoff point to define more severe cases, although the trend was not statistically significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Science, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, England.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Harwood
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Bulpitt
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Shipley
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Marmot
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Markowe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol