[Determinants of hypercholesterolemia in Geneva: should the focus be on genes or environment?].
Do genetic (G), or environmental (E), factors primarily determine blood lipid concentrations in the Geneva population? On-going research on the causes of hypercholesterolemia in populations based on data collected by the Bus Santé Survey is summarized. About 2/3 of the HDL-cholesterol variance could not be explained by the most important 5 of 10 environmental factors and 9 of 275 common genetic variants identified in the analyses. The remaining 1/3 of the variance was explained mainly by obesity, smoking, alcohol intake, age, and gender. The common polymorphisms played a much smaller role. GxG, GxE, and ExE interactions were the weakest determinants. Environmental factors appear to be the main determinants of hypercholesterolemia in populations. Measurement of genetic traits for clinical or public health purposes is currently not useful.
Morabia
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Service d'epidémiologie clinique, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève, 1211 Genève 14. Alfredo.Morabia@hcuge.ch
Costanza
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MC
D004777:Environment; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology