Four and two-thirds years incidence of coronary heart disease in middle-aged men: the Oslo study.

The association between four and two-thirds years incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and serum cholesterol, blood pressure (BP), height, body weight, cigarette smoking and physical activity at work and at leisure, was studied in 14,816 Oslo men, aged 40-49 years at entry to the study and free of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Serum cholesterol is a stronger predictor for CHD than the other continuous factors studied in this cohort. The predictive power was only moderately increased by combining cholesterol, systolic BP and cigarette smoking. The risk ratio between men physically active and sedentary at leisure was 1:3. Only 35% of this difference could be explained by the other risk factors. The epidemiology of CHD in Oslo in relation to serum cholesterol and BP was found to be unchanged from that found in a previous study in Oslo.