Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Age: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Danish Men and Women From the Glostrup Population Studies, 1991.

We report the age- and gender-related prevalence of risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) in the third screening of the Danish MONICA population, 1991. The study population comprised all inhabitants of 11 municipalities in the outskirts of Copenhagen. Using the Central Person Register (CPR), random samples of exact age groups born in 1921, 1931, 1941, 1951, and 1961 were invited. A total of 1,008 men and 1,015 women were screened (participation rate, 70%). The Framingham coefficients were used as weighting factors to compare combined risk in each age group. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglyceride levels in serum all increased with age of the cohorts in women. In men, TC concentrations decreased but serum HDL levels increased from cohort age 50, thus bringing TC as well as the TC/HDL ratio statistically below female levels at age 60 and 70. Reasons for this observation are discussed, and include high physical activity, alcohol consumption and selective mortality in the elderly men.