Abstract

Blood lipids are a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), and they change distinctly after the fourth decade in humans. In order to understand the relationships between blood lipids and sex, age, and weight in individuals over 45 years old, we recruited 362 healthy males aged 45-87 years (mean ± SD, 62.9 ± 11.3) and 297 healthy females aged 45-107 years (mean ± SD, 61.0 ± 11.6); all were of Chinese ancestry. We measured total cholesterol (CH), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) andtriglycerides (TG). After adjustment for age and /or weight, significant differences in CH, HDL-C and LDL-C among male-female groups were observed. There were significant differences in CH in males (P = 0.001), HDL-C in Chinese females (P < 0.001), and TG in both females and males among age-stratified groups. In weight- stratified groups, significant differences in CH (P = 0.012) and LDL-C (P = 0.037), were identified only in Chinese males. Regression analysis suggested that agetended to show a negative correlation with blood lipids variations compared to positive correlations with weight. The proportion of CH variation related to age in males, HDL-C variation related to age in females, and CH related to weight infemales were 5.4, 5.0 and 1.4%, respectively. These results suggest that there is a difference in blood lipids based on sex, and that age and weight may have different effects on blood lipids in Chinese individuals over 45 years old.

Key words: Blood lipid, sex, age, weight, Chinese.