Effects of similarities in lifestyle habits on familial aggregation of high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein cholesterol - The NHLBI Family Heart Study

It is generally assumed that familial aggregation of lipids relates to both genetic and shared environmental factors. To determine the degree to which familiar similarities in lifestyle habits explain familial aggregation of high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholestero l, the authors analyzed 1994-1996 data from 2,284 US adult participants in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study For men an d women, respectively, HDL cholesterol correlated with alcohol consumption (r = 0.27, p < 0.001; r = 0.21, p < 0.001), exercise (r = 0.06, p = 0.05; r = 0.10, p = 0.002), and smoking (r = -0.09, p = 0.005; r = -0.13, p < 0.00 1). There was strong familial aggregation of HDL cholesterol (parent-child, r = 0.32; sibling-sibling, r = 0.29), but less than 10% was explained by l ifestyle habits. For LDL cholesterol, weak correlations were found for inta ke of total fat (r = 0.06, p = 0.07) and fruits/vegetables (r = -0.09, p = 0.005) among men and for smoking (r = 0.10, p = 0.002) among women. LDL cho lesterol correlated strongly among family members (parent-child, r = 0.24; sibling-sibling, r = 0.31), but essentially none of this aggregation relate d to the lifestyle factors studied. This study suggests that lifestyle fact ors have little effect on the familial aggregation of HDL and LDL cholester ol.