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Low cholesterol, mortality, and quality of life in old age during a 39-year follow-up

Timo E. Strandberg, MD, PhD^*,*, Arto Strandberg, MD^*, Kirsi Rantanen, MD, Veikko V. Salomaa, MD, PhD, Kaisu Pitkälä, MD, PhD^* and Tatu A. Miettinen, MD, PhD^*

^* Department of Medicine, Geriatric Clinic
Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
KTL-National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Figure 1 Flow chart of the study.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Figure 2 Distribution and change of serum cholesterol (mmol/l) according to baseline cholesterol during the follow-up. The analysis was restricted to the survivors who reported their cholesterol value in 2000 (n = 1,292). Among them serum cholesterol was available at baseline (n = 1,292), in 1974 (n = 984), and in 1985 (n = 696). At all time points the differences between the baseline cholesterol groups were highly significant (p < 0.0001).

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Figure 3 Survival curves of all baseline cholesterol groups (A, n = 3,277) and the lowest cholesterol group (5.0 mmol/l, n = 224) versus other groups combined (B). p value in both panels denote the significance of the survival differences between the cholesterol groups (log-rank test). I: 5.0 mmol/l (n = 224), II: 5.1 to 6.0 mmol/l (n = 803), III: 6.1 to 7.0 mmol/l (n = 1,170), IV: 7.1 to 8.0 mmol/l (n = 720), V: 8.1 to 9.0 mmol/l (n = 255), VI: >9.0 mmol/l (n = 105).

View larger version (13K): [in a new window]   Figure 4 Baseline cholesterol and health-related quality of life (RAND-36, adjusted for age and baseline body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and smoking) in old age in 2000. The original physical component summary and the mental component summary scores were calculated according to the RAND-36 scales as described in Methods. Solid bars = cholesterol 5.0 mmol/l; open bars = >5.0 mmol/l.