DIETARY SATURATED AND TRANS-FATTY-ACIDS AND CHOLESTEROL AND 25-YEAR MORTALITY FROM CORONARY-HEART-DISEASE - THE 7 COUNTRIES STUDY

Background. In the Seven Countries Study associations between intake o f individual fatty acids and dietary cholesterol were studied in relat ion to serum cholesterol and 25-year mortality from coronary heart dis ease. All analyses concern only intercohort comparisons. Methods. In t he baseline surveys carried out between 1958 and 1964, risk factors fo r coronary heart disease were measured among 12,763 middle-aged men co nstituting 16 cohorts in seven countries. In 1987 and 1988 equivalent food composites representing the average food intake of each cohort at baseline were collected locally and analyzed in a central laboratory. The vital status of all participants was verified at regular interval s during 25 years of follow-up. Results. Of the individual saturated f atty acids, the average population intake of lauric and myristic acid was most strongly related to the average serum cholesterol level (r > 0.8, P < 0.001). Strong positive associations were observed between 25 -year death rates from coronary heart disease and average intake of th e four major saturated fatty acids, lauric, myristic, palmitic, and st earic acid (r > 0.8, P < 0.001); the trans fatty acid elaidic acid (r = 0.78, P < 0.001); and dietary cholesterol (r = 0.55, P < 0.05). Conc lusions. Interpreted in the light of experimental and clinical studies , the results of these cross-cultural analyses suggest that dietary sa turated and trans fatty acids and dietary cholesterol are important de terminants of differences in population rates of coronary heart diseas e death. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.