Forty-year follow-up of coronary heart disease mortality and its predictors: the Corfu cohort of the seven countries study.

The authors examined the effect of several risk factors in relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the Corfu cohort of the Seven Countries Study. The population studied in this analysis consisted of 529 rural men (age 40-59 years) enrolled in 1961. Multivariate analysis was performed with CHD death as the end point; age, blood pressure, heart rate, serum total cholesterol, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, skinfold thickness, vital capacity, and forced expiratory volume were the predictors. The 40-year CHD survival rate was 63% (108 deaths). Age (hazard ratio [HR]=1.093; p<0.001), smoking (HR=1.79; p<0.05), body mass index (HR=1.05; p<0.1), and serum total cholesterol (HR=1.004; p<0.2) were independently associated with 40-year CHD mortality. Conclusively, in men from the Corfu cohort, age, lifestyle habits (expressed as smoking and body mass index), and serum cholesterol levels were consistently associated with 40-year CHD mortality. In addition, the current status of men in the Corfu cohort is marked by long-term adoption of a Mediterranean type of diet, physical activity, and optimism.