Prevalence of blood lipid disturbances in Swedish and foreign-born 60-year-old men and women in Stockholm, Sweden.
OBJECTIVE
Some immigrant groups in Sweden show a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary heart disease. There is a lack of data of pattern of blood lipids among these. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of dyslipidaemia in men and women of foreign-born origin compared to Swedish-born.


RESULTS
A cross-sectional study of a random sample of the population in Stockholm County, Sweden, with total of 4228 60-year-old men and women. Medical, lifestyle and socio-economic data were collected by questionnaires, and anthropometric and laboratory data through medical examination. Outcomes were odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for dyslipidaemia in different groups, with Swedish-born as reference group, with adjustment for anthropometric, medical, lifestyle and socio-economic factors. Among non-European immigrants, the fully adjusted OR of high cholesterol was 0.57 (95% CI 0.37-0.88), of high LDL-cholesterol was 0.62 (95% CI 0.40-0.96), and of low HDL-cholesterol was 2.06 (95% CI 1.35-3.15). When only adjusting for sex, Finnish-born and non-European immigrants showed higher risk of high triglycerides, OR 1.31 (95% CI 1.01-1.71) and OR 1.98 (95% CI 1.34-2.93), respectively, and of high apoB/apoA-I ratio, OR 1.29 (95% CI 1.00-1.66) and OR 1.57 (95% CI 1.06-2.33), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The finding of blood lipid disturbances among immigrants in this study partly explain the higher cardiovascular morbidity shown in previous studies. Non-European immigrants showed a different lipid pattern, with lower HDL-cholesterol, which could possibly be of genetic background.
Wändell
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PE
Center for Family and Community Medicine, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Alfred Nobels allé 12, SE-14183 Huddinge, Sweden. per.wandell@ki.se
Carlsson
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AC
de Faire
U
U
Hellénius
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ML
D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I / Q000097:blood; D001055:Apolipoproteins B / Q000097:blood; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL / Q000097:blood; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D050171:Dyslipidemias / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015228:Hypertriglyceridemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
C505693:APOA1 protein, human; D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I; D001055:Apolipoproteins B; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D008078:Cholesterol, LDL; D002784:Cholesterol