Low serum total cholesterol concentrations and mortality in middle aged British men

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Abstract
Objective: To examine the relation between low serum total cholesterol concentrations and causes of mortality. Design: Cohort study of men followed up for an average of 14.8 years (range 13.5-16.0 years). Setting: One general practice in each of 24 British towns. Subjects: 7735 men aged 40-59 at screening selected at random from the 24 general practices. Main outcome measures: Deaths from all causes, cardiovascular causes, cancer, and non-cardiovascular, non-cancer causes. Results: During the mean follow up period of 14.8 years there were 1257 deaths from all causes, 640 cardiovascular deaths, 433 cancer deaths, and 184 deaths from other causes. Low serum cholesterol concentrations (Conclusion: The association between comparatively low serum total cholesterol concentrations and excess mortality seemed to be due to preclinical cancer and other non-cardiovascular diseases. This suggests that public health programmes encouraging lower average concentrations of serum total cholesterol are unlikely to be associated with increased cancer or other non-cardiovascular mortality.