Plasma cholesterol, triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels in 17-year-old Jerusalem offspring of Jews from 19 countries of birth.

The distribution of plasma cholesterol, triglyceride (TG) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) was examined in 6,654 17-yr-old young men and women who attended an army medical examination. There were highly significant differences among the four main groups, classified according to their father's place of birth: Israel, the Asian Near East, North Africa and Europe (including the Americas, Oceania and Southern Africa). Mean levels of plasma cholesterol in each group varied in males from 126.9 to 137.4 mg/dl, TG from 72.1 to 77.8 mg/dl and HDL-C from 41.3 to 44.4 mg/dl. In females, the cholesterol levels ranged from 144.6 to 154.8 mg/dl, TG from 72.7 to 76.3 and HDL-C from 47.3 to 50.5 mg/dl. In the various groups, subjects of North African origin consistently had the lowest lipid values, and subjects whose fathers were born in Europe or Israel, the highest. When the subjects were classified according to their fathers' specific country of origin, mean cholesterol values ranged from a low of 126.2 mg/dl in Moroccan males to a high of 143.0 in Austrian and Swiss males, and from 137.6 mg/dl in Tunisian females to 161.6 in those whose fathers had emigrated from North American countries. HDL-C ranged in males from 40.0 mg/dl in the Egyptian group to 47.0 in the Austrian-Swiss-Lichtenstein group; in females, the values ranged from 46.0 mg/dl in the Algerian group to 53.4 in the Austrian-Swiss-Lichtenstein group. These findings are discussed in light of published reports of lipid and lipoprotein levels in individuals living in different countries.