Trends in High Levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in the United States, 1999-2006

CONTEXT Studies show that a large proportion of adults with high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) remain untreated or undertreated despite growing use of lipid-lowering medications. OBJECTIVE To investigate trends in screening prevalence, use of cholesterol-lowering medications,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2009-11, Vol.302 (19), p.2104-2110
Main Authors: Kuklina, Elena V, Yoon, Paula W, Keenan, Nora L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cholesterol
Cholesterol, LDL - blood
Drug therapy
Female
General aspects
Humans
Hypercholesterolemia - diagnosis
Hypercholesterolemia - drug therapy
Hypercholesterolemia - epidemiology
Hypolipidemic Agents - therapeutic use
Low density lipoprotein
Male
Medical sciences
Medical screening
Middle Aged
Nutrition Surveys
Prevalence
Risk Factors
United States - epidemiology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:CONTEXT Studies show that a large proportion of adults with high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) remain untreated or undertreated despite growing use of lipid-lowering medications. OBJECTIVE To investigate trends in screening prevalence, use of cholesterol-lowering medications, and LDL-C levels across 4 study cycles (1999-2000, 2001-2002, 2003-2004, and 2005-2006). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a cross-sectional, stratified, multistage probability sample survey of the US civilian, noninstitutionalized population. After we restricted the study sample to fasting participants aged 20 years or older (n = 8018) and excluded pregnant women (n = 464) and participants with missing data (n = 510), our study sample consisted of 7044 participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE High LDL-C levels, defined as levels above the specific goal for each risk category outlined in guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III). All presented results are weighted and age-standardized to 2000 standard population estimates. RESULTS Prevalence of high LDL-C levels among persons aged 20 years or older decreased from 31.5% in 1999-2000 to 21.2% in 2005-2006 (P 
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2009.1672