[The prevalence of hyperlipidemia and obesity in Vienna health examinations 1986]

A random sample of 20% of people taking part in the free health check-ups provided by the city of Vienna in 1986 (707 men and 1022 women), aged 20 to 79 years (mean age men 48.1 +/- 15.8, women 49.6 +/- 15.1 respectively) were retrospectively evaluated to determine coronary heart disease risk according to the recommendations of the Austrian Cholesterol Consensus Conference. Age-standardized mean total-cholesterol is 230.0 mg/dl in men and 235.8 mg/dl in women. Age-standardized percentage of normal lipid levels (i.e. total-cholesterol below 200 mg/dl) is 29.7% in men, 25.7% in women respectively. The high-risk group (i.e. total-cholesterol more than 250 mg/dl) has an age-standardized prevalence of 28.5% in men and 35.8% in women. The age-standardized percentage of obesity according to the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health is 14.2 in men, 17.2 in women respectively. The comparison of age-standardized men-values of total-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and Quetelet-index, as well as normal lipid levels according to the Austrian recommendations and percentage of obesity, in the age groups 20 to 39, 40 to 59 and 60 to 79 years shows a statistical significant difference of each parameter between age-group 20 to 39 and age-group 40 to 59 in men, but no significant difference in any parameter between age-group 40 to 59 and 60 to 79 in men. On the contrary in women differences are significant between age-group 20 to 39 and 40 to 59, as well as between age-group 40 to 59 and 60 to 79 in each parameter.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)