Low cholesterol and violent crime.
BACKGROUND
Community cohort studies and meta-analyses of randomized trials have shown a relation between low or lowered cholesterol and death by violence (homicide, suicide, accident); in primates, cholesterol reduction has been linked to increased behavioral acts of aggression (Kaplan J, Manuck S. The effects of fat and cholesterol on aggressive behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1990;52:226-7; Kaplan J, Shively C, Fontenot D, Morgan T, Howell S, Manuck S et al. Demonstration of an association among dietary cholesterol, central serotonergic activity, and social behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1994;56:479-84.). In this study we test for the first time whether cholesterol level is related to commission of violent crimes against others in a large community cohort.


METHODS
We merged one-time cholesterol measurements on 79,777 subjects enrolled in a health screening project in Varmland, Sweden with subsequent police records for arrests for violent crimes in men and women aged 24-70 at enrollment; and with information on covariates. We performed a nested case control comparison of cholesterol in violent criminals - defined as those with two or more crimes of violence against others - to cholesterol in nonoffenders matched on age, enrollment year, sex, education and alcohol, using variable-ratio matching, with a nonparametric sign test.


RESULTS
One hundred individuals met criteria for criminal violence. Low cholesterol (below the median) was strongly associated with criminal violence in unadjusted analysis (Men: risk ratio 1.94, P=0.002; all subjects risk ratio 2.32, P<0.001). Age emerged as a strong confounder. Adjusting for covariates using a matching procedure, violent criminals had significantly lower cholesterol than others identical in age, sex, alcohol indices and education, using a nonparametric sign test (P=0.012 all subjects; P=0.035 men).


CONCLUSIONS
Adjusting for other factors, low cholesterol is associated with increased subsequent criminal violence.
Golomb
B A
BA
Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 92093-0995, USA. bgolomb@ucsd.edu
Stattin
H
H
Mednick
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D003415:Crime; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012701:Serotonin / Q000097:blood; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D012701:Serotonin; D002784:Cholesterol