Prevalence of Hyperlipidaemia in British Compared with North American Men

The distribution of plasma lipid and lipoprotein values within the North American population was determined between 1971–1976 during the Lipid Research Clinics (LRC) Prevalence Study [1, 2], Fasting plasma cholesterol and triglycerides were measured in over 17000 white men between the ages of 20–64 [1] and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels were subsequently determined in nearly 2500 of these men [2]. To compare the prevalence of hyperlipidaemia in these North American men with their British counterparts, we have analysed data on over 8000 men of similar age undergoing health screening in London during 1984, making appropriate corrections for differences in methodology. Despite these corrections the range of values obtained in this particular sample of British men differed appreciably from those in the LRC study. This possibly reflects dietary differences and may have some bearing on current mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) being higher in Britain than in the United States and Canada [3].