Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
Original StudyCholesterol, Statins, and Longevity From Age 70 to 90 Years
Section snippets
Study Sample
The Jerusalem Longitudinal Study has prospectively followed a birth cohort of Jerusalem residents (born June 1920 to May 1921) from age 70 at baseline in 1990 until the present time. A detailed description of study methodology has been described previously.6, 7, 8 Individuals in the baseline study sample were examined at age 70 in 1990, with subsequent study waves performed on the same study samples at ages 78 (1998) and 85 (2005). The original study sample, which formed about one-third of the
Results
The study examines data from 460, 512, and 702 participants, aged 70, 78, and 85, respectively, among whom the prevalence of high TC (>200 mg/dL) was 75% (n = 344), 65% (n = 332), and 34% (n = 237), respectively. Baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1. At age 70, before statins had been locally introduced into clinical use, high TC was associated with being female, not being married, chronic pain, and cerebrovascular disease. At age 78, participants with high TC had lower rates of IHD,
Discussion
TC levels at age 70, 78, or 85 years were not significantly associated with increased all-cause mortality in this prospective observational study of a representative sample of community-dwelling people. Although there was a consistent trend toward improved survival among participants with higher TC, it was not statistically significant in either the Kaplan-Meier or Cox proportional hazards analyses, when measured as a dichotomous or continuous variable. It should be noted that the absence of
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the people who participated in the study.
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This study was funded by the Ministry of Senior Citizens, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the State of Israel, the National Insurance Institute, and Eshel–the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel. No support was offered by any commercial venture. These funds were used exclusively to support the research effort, primarily as salaries to ancillary staff. No research funds were received by any author of this article.
The sponsors had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
JS, JMJ, AC, and EEM had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Author contributions: Study concept and design: JS, JMJ, AC. Acquisition of data: JS, JMJ, AC, EEM. Analysis and interpretation of data: JMJ, JS, EEM, AC. Drafting of the first manuscript and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: JMJ, JS, EEM, AC. Statistical analyses: EEM, JS, JMJ, AC. Administrative, technical, or material support: JS. Obtained funding, study supervision: JS.