Browsing by Author "Karvonen, Martti J. (7005345587)"

In the Seven Countries Study, carried out in Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, the United States, and Yugoslavia, among 11,325 "healthy" men aged 40-59 years in 15 years, there were 594 cancer deaths. Among 477 cancer deaths five years after cholesterol measurement, there was a significant excess of lung cancer deaths in the bottom 20% of the cholesterol distributions in the populations. Age, blood pressure, smoking habits, occupation, and relative body weight did not help explain this. A U-shaped relationship between cancer and cholesterol was not seen in any population. Trend analysis with various cutting points indicated increasing risk of lung cancer death at cholesterol levels under 170 mg/dl. The 45 men dead from cancer in the first two years had lower cholesterol levels than their compatriots who died from cancer later but they did not differ in relative weight or fatness. In contrast to relationships for individuals within populations, the highest cancer death rates were in northern Europe, where the general level of cholesterol was also highest. Other characteristics of the populations-age, relative weight, smoking habits, blood pressure, physical activity, and vitamin A and ascorbic acid in the diet-did not help in the attempt to understand the regional differences in cancer mortality. There is no evidence that any of the observed cancer-serum cholesterol relationships among or within the populations involve an effect of serum cholesterol concentration on oncogenesls or cancer mortality but the possibility of such an effect cannot be denied. © 1985 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Among 11, 579 men ages 40-59 without evidence of cardiovascular disease, 2,289 died in 15 years, 618 from coronary heart disease. The 15 cohorts in seven countries (four regions) differed in all-causes death rate, mainly reflecting great differences in coronary mortality. Among characteristics of entry, only mean blood pressure helped to explain cohort differences in all-causes death rate. Three-quarters of the variance in coronary death rate was accounted for by differences in mean serum cholesterol and blood pressure of the cohorts. The mortality risk for individuals was examined in each of the regions. For coronary death, age, serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and smoking were highly significant in all regions except Japan, where coronary deaths were too few for evaluation. Relative weight was not significant anywhere. Physical activity was significant only in southern Europe, where differences are associated with socioeconomic status. For all-causes death, age and blood pressure were highly significant risk factors in all regions as was smoking habit, except in Japan. Relative body weight tended to be a negative risk factor everywhere, significantly so in southern Europe. Expectations for coronary death from the experience in the United States and northern Europe greatly exceeded observed deaths in southern Europe for men of their age, serum cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking habits, physical activity, and relative weight. The reverse, prediction of coronary deaths in America and in northern Europe from the southern European experience, greatly underestimated the deaths observed. Similar cross-predictions between the United States and northern Europe were good for all causes deaths, excellent for coronary deaths. Analysis of time trends in relationships of mortality to entry characteristics showed continued importance of age, blood pressure, and smoking and a tendency for the importance of cholesterol to fall in the last 5 years of follow-up. © 1984.