Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and risk of ARDS: a 15-year cohort study in a managed care setting.

Study Objective: To examine the association of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption with hospital presentation of ARDS in a well-defined, multiethnic population.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Health maintenance organization in Northern California.

Uric acid and serum antioxidant capacity: a reaction to atherosclerosis?

Background: the evidence of a potential beneficial role of antioxidants in preventing atherosclerotic disease is not entirely consistent.

Objective: to assess the longitudinal association of serum total antioxidant capacity and serum antioxidants with the presence of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis.

Methods: Prospective case-control study nested within an historical cohort.

Effect of cigar smoking on the risk of cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer in men.

Background: The sale of cigars in the United States has been increasing for the past six years. Cigar smoking is a known risk factor for certain cancers and for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, unlike the relation between cigarette smoking and cardiovascular disease, the association between cigar smoking and cardiovascular disease has not been clearly established.

Cohort study of serum total cholesterol and in-hospital incidence of infectious diseases.

A multiethnic cohort of adult members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (55300 men and 65271 women) was followed for 15 years (1979-93) to assess the association between total cholesterol and risk of infections (other than respiratory and HIV) diagnosed in the in-patient setting. Using multivariate Cox regression, total cholesterol was inversely and significantly related to urinary tract, venereal, musculo-skeletal, and all infections among men; and to urinary tract, all genito-urinary, septicaemia or bacteraemia, miscellaneous viral site unspecified, and all infections among women. The reduction of risk of all infections associated with a 1 S.

Lack of association between ferritin level and measures of LDL oxidation: the ARIC study. Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

Body iron status has been implicated in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The main hypothesis was that high iron status was associated with increased oxidation of LDL. The associations of serum ferritin (a marker of iron status) and dietary iron intake with the susceptibility of LDL to in vitro oxidation (lag phase) and autoantibodies against MDA-modified LDL (two markers of oxidation stress) were examined among 281 men and 192 women with a mean age of 59 years (S.

Validation of death certificate diagnosis of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death.

The validity of death certificate diagnosis of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death (OOH-SCD) was studied among 108,676 30- to 74-year-old residents in 5 Minnesota communities using 6-year mortality data (1985 to 1990). Among 4,244 total deaths, location of death was listed on the certificate as out of hospital in 2,035 cases. Of those, 911 were judged not to have OOH-SCD because they had actually been admitted to the hospital or were noncardiovascular deaths.

Serum total cholesterol and risk of hospitalization, and death from respiratory disease.

Background: In earlier studies, serum total cholesterol was inversely associated with death due to respiratory diseases.

Methods: Relationships of cholesterol with risk of respiratory diseases were examined between 1978 and 1993 in a health maintenance organization in Northern California (48,188 men, 55,276 women, about 60% white, age range 25-89). Incident and fatal endpoints were ascertained using hospital discharge diagnostic codes and underlying cause of death, respectively.

Association between serum total cholesterol and HIV infection in a high-risk cohort of young men.

Low serum total cholesterol (TC) is associated with a variety of nonatherosclerotic diseases, but the association of TC with infectious disease has been little studied. In this study, we examined the relationship between serum TC and HIV infection in members of a large health maintenance organization in Northern California. The cohort consisted of 2446 unmarried young men 15 to 49 years of age at high risk of HIV infection, defined as self-reported history of sexually transmitted disease or liver disease.

Reduced cholesterol is associated with recent minor illness: the CARDIA Study. Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults.

Lower levels of plasma total cholesterol have been observed during severe infection, but it is not known whether the minor illnesses encountered in the general population are also associated with reduced cholesterol. This paper examines the relation between minor illness and plasma lipids, using 7- and 10-year follow-up data from more than 3,000 generally healthy participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. At both 7 and 10 years, approximately 8.

Epidemiology of low total plasma cholesterol concentration among young adults: the CARDIA study. Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults.

Background: Data on stability of plasma total cholesterol levels and its determinants among young adults are lacking. Knowledge of factors associated with low levels of plasma total cholesterol during young adulthood may help clarify the nature of associations between hypocholesterolemia and health or illness.

Methods: Tracking of plasma total cholesterol was investigated using data from the baseline (1985-1986), Year 5 (1990-1991), and Year 7 (1992-1993) examinations of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study.

Association of serum vitamin levels, LDL susceptibility to oxidation, and autoantibodies against MDA-LDL with carotid atherosclerosis. A case-control study. The ARIC Study Investigators. Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

Oxidative modification of LDL is believed to be a crucial step in atherosclerosis. Thus, antioxidant vitamins may have a role in the prevention of coronary disease. We examined the cross-sectional association of serum vitamin levels, the susceptibility of LDL to hemin-induced oxidation (lag phase to conjugated diene formation), and the malondialdehyde-LDL (MDA-LDL) to native LDL radioactivity binding ratio with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a measure of asymptomatic early atherosclerosis.

Twelve-year trends in cardiovascular disease risk factors in the Minnesota Heart Survey. Are socioeconomic differences widening?

Background: Inverse associations of educational level and household income (as proxy indicators of socioeconomic status) with cardiovascular disease risk factors are fairly well established. Whether differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors across education or income levels have widened in the last decade remains an issue of considerable public health importance.

Methods: Analysis by mixed-regression models of trends in cardiovascular disease risk factors, in population-based samples (n = 3334 in 1980-1982, n = 4538 in 1985-1987, and n = 4517 in 1990-1992) of Minneapolis-St Paul residents 25 to 74 years old.

Low total serum cholesterol and intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke: is the association confined to elderly men? The Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program.

Background And Purpose: Epidemiological studies indicate a higher incidence of intracerebral (but not subarachnoid) hemorrhagic stroke among persons with low total serum cholesterol levels. This report further examines the prospective relationship of total serum cholesterol with subsequent intracerebral hemorrhage in a large, well-defined population.

Methods: The cohort included 61756 enrollees in a health plan from the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area (46% men, 63% white), aged 40 to 89 years and free of cardiovascular disease at baseline.

Relationship of lipoproteins, apolipoproteins, triglycerides and lipid ratios to plasma total cholesterol in young adults: the CARDIA Study. Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults.

Objective: To characterize the association of carrier lipoproteins, apolipoproteins, triglycerides and various lipid ratios with total cholesterol in young adults.

Design: Cross-sectional data from the baseline examination (1985-1986) of The Coronary Artery Risk Development In Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, a multicenter investigation of a biracial cohort of 4941 men and women aged 18-30 years.

Methods: Multiple linear regression models to estimate mean levels of lipids and lipoproteins for each category of total cholesterol, stratified by race and sex and adjusted for age and education level.

Correlates of uric acid and its association with asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis: the ARIC Study. Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

The correlates of serum uric acid and the association of uric acid with carotid intimal-medial thickness (an early measure of atherosclerosis) were investigated in participants of the baseline examination of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. The study sample included 6522 women (74% white) and 4966 men (79% white) who were aged 45 to 64 years at baseline (1986-1989). Those with prevalent coronary heart disease or previous stroke and those taking uricosuric medication were excluded.

High uric acid: a metabolic marker of coronary heart disease among alcohol abstainers.

The association between serum uric acid level and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) over 21 years was investigated among 6411 middle-aged Japanese-American men who were participants in the Honolulu Heart Program. In an age-stratified Cox regression model, high serum uric acid (quartile 4 [>6.7 mg/dl], relative to quartile 1 [<5.

Association of serum total cholesterol with coronary disease and all-cause mortality: multivariate correction for bias due to measurement error.

Measurement error in the exposure under investigation is an important but often ignored source of bias in observational studies. The authors examined the impact of measurement error in the association between total serum cholesterol and 16-year coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality in a cohort of 6,137 middle-aged men of Japanese descent in the Honolulu Heart Program (1973-1988). A Cox regression model that enables modeling of survival time with correction for measurement errors in multiple covariates was employed.

Low serum cholesterol and mortality. Which is the cause and which is the effect?

Background: Many studies have reported an association between a low or lowered blood total cholesterol (TC) level and subsequent nonatherosclerotic disease incidence or death. The question of whether low TC is a true risk factor or alternatively a consequence of occult disease at the time of TC measurement remains unsettled. To shed new light onto this problem, we analyzed TC change over a 6- year period (from exam 1 in 1965 through 1968 to exam 3 in 1971 through 1974) in relation to subsequent 16-year mortality in a cohort of Japanese American men.

Association of weight loss and weight fluctuation with mortality among Japanese American men.

Background: Weight loss and fluctuations in weight have been associated with increased risks of death from cardiovascular disease and from all causes. The clinical and public health implications of these associations are unclear.

Methods: We examined the long-term relation of weight change and fluctuation in weight with mortality over a 6-year period in 6537 middle-aged Japanese American men enrolled in the Honolulu Heart Program, a prospective study (mean follow-up, 14.

Serum total cholesterol and mortality. Confounding factors and risk modification in Japanese-American men.

Objective: To further investigate the relationship between serum total cholesterol (TC) level and mortality due to major causes. In particular, is the elevated mortality among persons with low TC levels due to confounding conditions that both lower TC level and increase the risk of mortality, and is the association between low or high TC level and mortality homogeneous in the population or, alternatively, restricted to persons with other risk factors?

Study Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Free-living population in Oahu, Hawaii.