Baseline serum total cholesterol and coronary heart disease incidence in African-American women (the NHANES I epidemiologic follow-up study). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Proportional-hazards analyses for African-American women aged 25 to 74 revealed a variable association of coronary heart disease risk with baseline serum total cholesterol (after adjusting for age fifth vs first quintile: RR = 1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.89 to 2.98, p = 0.12; after adjusting for age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, smoking, history of diabetes, low education, and low family income: RR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.02 to 3.45, p = 0.04). Perhaps due to the relatively small number of events, the association of serum total cholesterol with coronary heart disease incidence in African-American women was not consistently significant.