title: Serum albumin, coronary heart disease risk, and mortality in an elderly cohort.
abstract: We investigated associations of serum albumin with the incidence and mortality of coronary heart disease among men from the Zutphen Elderly Study. In 1985, 820 men were randomly selected from a population age 64-84 years and were followed for 5 years. We adjusted relative risks for traditional risk factors (age, body mass index, diastolic blood pressure, total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, smoking, and alcohol consumption) and also for baseline health status indicators (white blood cell count, physician's health score, self-rated health, and history of relevant diseases). Albumin was inversely associated with the incidence of coronary heart disease only among men with elevated total cholesterol levels (> or = 6.5 mmol per liter). The relative risk for a 1-standard deviation increase (2.5 gm per liter) in albumin was 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.38-0.96] and was not altered after additional adjustment for baseline health status. In all men, the relative risk for death due to coronary heart disease was 0.67 (95% CI = 0.49-0.92), and the relative risk was reduced to 0.84 (95% CI = 0.61-1.15) after adjustment for health status. We found comparable health status-adjusted relative risks for mortality from cardiovascular diseases (relative risk = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.67-1.02) and for mortality from all causes (relative risk = 0.86; 0.73-0.99). Independent of traditional risk factors, moderately low serum albumin is predictive of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality in elderly men. Only part of this relation could be explained by baseline health status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chronic Diseases and Environmental Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Weijenberg
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Feskens
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Souverijn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kromhout
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D012709:Serum Albumin