Cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate in men.

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was determined on 1480 initially "healthy" male participants of the Normative Aging study on three successive examinations over a ten year period. Cross-sectional analysis revealed a significant correlation between age and ESR (r = 0.20, p less than 0.001) with generally higher ESR values in older individuals. Longitudinal analysis showed significant increases in ESR among "healthy" subjects who continued to pass our criteria for good health over a ten year period (p less than 0.001) and among "excluded" subjects who did not pass these criteria (p less than 0.001). Longistic regression analysis indicated that the ESR was significantly related to risk of death among subjects less than 45 years of age (p = 0.04) but not among subjects 45 + years (p = 0.39).