Coronary risk factors in a community. Findings in Tecumseh, Michigan

In the Tecumseh study population examined from 1967 through 1969, 1457 men and 1607 women were separated into young (20-39 years), middle (40-54 years), and old (past 55 years) age categories. A subset of the study population, 183 men and 200 women who were repeatedly hyperglycemic according to a modified glucose tolerance test, were divided into the same age groups. Means and standard deviations of adiposity index, serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride, blood glucose, and systolic blood pressure were calculated for the total population and hyperglycemics. Correlation coefficients were determined for the relationship between adiposity index and each of the other variables and between paired variables exclusive adiposity index. Correlation coefficients for the latter relationships were recalculated after adjustment for the effect of adiposity. Means of variables were higher in middle and older age categories than in young age categories in both sexes, but the greatest incremental increases occurred between the young and middle-aged groups of men and between middle and old age groups among women. Men had significantly higher mean triglyceride and systolic blood pressure values than women in young and middle ages. Except for the cholesterol-triglyceride association, lipids, glucose, and systolic blood pressure were more highly correlated with adiposity than with each other. Correlations between variables were reduced by adjustment for adiposity. Hyperglycemics had higher mean adiposity indexes, serum lipids, and systolic blood pressures and generally higher correlations of variables than the entire study population. Much of the interrelationship of variables among hyperglycemics was associated with adiposity. Among men, higher mean triglyceride and systolic blood pressure levels, more frequent coexistence of risk factors, and a tendency to have large incremental increases in mean variables between young and middle age probably contribute to greater male susceptibility to ischemic heart disease. Levels of variables in the population and aggregation of coronary precursors in individuals are related to adiposity and hyperglycemia.