title: The relationship between serum total cholesterol and all-cause or cause-specific mortality in a 17.3-year study of a Japanese cohort.
abstract: No study has shown a positive relationship between hypercholesterolemia and all-cause mortality in the Japanese population. Therefore, a cohort study of 17.3 years' duration was conducted on 9216 participants aged 30 years or older, selected randomly from throughout Japan. In both the lowest (<4.14mmol/L, 160mg/dl) and highest (>or=6.71mmol/L, 260mg/dl) total cholesterol (TC) groups, there was a positive association between TC and risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 1.19; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.03-1.37 and 1.36 (95% CI, 1.05-1.77), respectively). The lowest TC group had an increased risk of liver disease (HR 3.03; 95% CI, 1.70-5.43), whereas the highest TC group had an increased risk of coronary heart disease (HR 3.81; 95% CI, 1.70-5.43). After exclusion of deaths due to liver disease during the entire follow-up period and all-cause deaths within the first 5 years of follow-up, the increased HR in the lowest TC group disappeared (HR 1.05; 95% CI, 0.89-1.24). Although the cut-off point seemed to be higher than that for Western populations, hypercholesterolemia was shown to be positively associated with all-cause mortality in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan. tokamura@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miyamatsu
authors.forename: Takehito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kadowaki
authors.forename: Yoshikuni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kita
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okayama
authors.forename: Hirotsugu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ueshima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol