Year: 2001
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In the beginning of this century Anitschkow and De Langen started pioneering\\nwork concerning the relation between cholesterol and coronary heart disease.\\nBoth showed that there was a possible relation between cholesterol in the diet, blood\\ncholesterol levels and atherosclerosis. It took until the second half of the twentieth\\ncentury before large-scale population based studies, like the Framingham Study and\\nthe Seven Countries Study, were started to investigate the relation between serum\\ncholesterol levels and coronary heart disease. These studies showed positive\\nassociations between serum cholesterol and incidence of and mortality from\\ncoronary heart disease in middle-aged men. Since then, other large\\nepidemiological studies have shown that serum total cholesterol is positively\\nassociated and HDL cholesterol inversely associated with coronary heart disease\\nmortality in middle-aged men.\\nQuantifying the effect of cholesterol lowering interventions on for example\\nincidence of coronary heart disease in The Netherlands is an important public health\\nissue. Total cholesterol levels in the Dutch population are relatively high and did not\\nsubstantially decrease until the beginning of the nineteen nineties. To quantify\\nthe amount of health gain that can be achieved through cholesterol lowering,\\nadditional information has to be gathered. First, recent levels of and trends in total\\nand HDL cholesterol and prevalences of hypercholesterolemia and low HDL\\ncholesterol levels in the Dutch population have to be described. Second, more\\nevidence on the impact of total and HDL cholesterol on coronary heart disease in\\nelderly men and women has to be collected. It is well known that serum total and\\nHDL cholesterol are associated with coronary heart disease in middle-aged men and\\nwomen, but it is still unclear whether this relation holds in the elderly. Third, risk\\nfunctions to predict absolute risk of coronary heart disease in middle-aged men and\\nwomen are well developed. However, in the elderly it is not clear whether these risk\\nfunctions are a valid tool for risk prediction. This is important to know because\\ncholesterol lowering treatment is nowadays based on the absolute level of risk,\\ntaking the total risk profile of an individual into account.
Author: Saskia Houterman
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1656002960