Parent-Child Associations at Upper and Lower Ranges of Plasma Cholesterol and Triglyceride Levels

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Abstract
The hypothesis that children of parents who have very high and very low levels of cholesterol and triglyceride are more likely than other children to have cholesterol and triglyceride levels at the same ends of the distribution as their parents is examined. For each lipid studied (cholesterol and triglyceride), 1944 households were separated into 3 categories: low, intermediate and high, based on parental fasting plasma levels and using the 5th (low) and 95th (high) percentiles of the parental distributions. The children were first categorized according to the classification of their parents and then further classified on the basis of their own levels, again using the 5th and 95th percentiles as cutoff points. The agreement between parental and child classifications was measured. Children from high-cholesterol-level households were 2.7 times more likely than children from the total pediatric population to have cholesterol levels above 205 mg/dl, the pediatric 95th percentile, (P < .01). Children from high-triglyceride-level households were 2.1 times more likely than children from the general pediatric population to have elevated triglyceride levels (P < .01). By focusing on parental cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which are commonly quantitated in adults, a pediatric sample was identified that contained significant numbers of hypercholesterolemic and hypertriglyceridemic children.