Familial resemblance on the Thurstone Activity Scale, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol among first degree relatives of subjects with and without coronary heart disease.

An investigation of the pattern of familial resemblance of three different risk factors assessed in families of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and controls is presented. The fathers of these families participated in the Western Collaborative Group Study that first established the type A/B behavior pattern as an independent risk factor for CHD. A recently developed methodology, the Structured Exploratory Data Analysis (SEDA), was implemented to examine parental interaction, parent-offspring closeness, asymmetries in transmission, and other differences in the pattern of familial similarities among family members of case and control subjects. The analysis performed revealed pronounced parent-child similarity for total serum cholesterol values in both case and control families; spouse closeness and parent-child resemblance for systolic blood pressure measurements only in control families; and sex asymmetries in the parent-child closeness on pace of activity, which also differed between case and control families. The results of this investigation underscore the value of examining the joint pattern of familial resemblance of a number of risk factors as a means for differentiating between cultural and biological factors affecting familial aggregation of CHD.