[Levels of serum cholesterol in a catalan population. Evolution over a 6- year period (1994-1996)]

To study the evolution of the serum levels of cholesterol in a population over 6 years. Design. cross-sectional observational study.Setting. Primary and specialist care in the county of Osona (Barcelona).

Study of those patients attending for health consultations in the county, whether at primary or hospital level, and who had their cholesterol level determined.

The levels of serum cholesterol of the 7882 patients studied during September to December 1994 was compared with those of the 10 319 patients analysed during the same months of 1999.

The mean levels of cholesterol increased steadily in both sexes with age, up to the fifth or sixth decade of life, at which point a slow descent started. Cholesterolaemia was higher in men than in women in the third and fourth decades of life; but from this age on, mean levels are higher in women than in men. Cholesterol levels in both sexes were higher in the 1999 period studied than in 1994. During 1999, 52.7% of men and 52.3% of women had serum cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dL, whereas in 1994 these figures were 49.1% and 49.2%, respectively.

Mean levels of serum cholesterol in the population under study are high and increased between the two sampling years. Preventive and hygiene-diet measures need to be fomented among the general population in order to improve control of cholesterolaemia.