Comparison of Multivariate Predictive Power of Major Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Diseases in Different Countries: Results from Eight Nations of the Seven Countries Study, 25-Year Follow-up

Background It was hypothesized that among eight national groups of men aged 40–59 years enrolled in the Seven Countries Study, the multivariate coefficients of major risk factors predicting coronary heart disease mortality over 25 years would be relatively similar.Materials and methods Sixteen cohorts were located in eight nations and pooled, comprising one cohort in the USA, two in Finland, one in the Netherlands, three in Italy, two in Croatia (former Yugoslavia), three in Serbia (Yugoslavia), two in Greece and two in Japan, for a total of over 12000 subjects at entry. Coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality was defined as fatal myocardial infarction or sudden coronary death, and proportional hazard models were solved, for each country, with age, serum cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure and cigarette consumption as covariates.Results The relationships between risk factors and CHD mortality were statistically significant for all risk factors and for all countries, except for age in Croatia and Jap...