Aim: To evaluate the impact of age and gender on lipid and lipoprotein profiles and the burden of dyslipidemia in a cohort of healthy Chinese Singaporean.

Methods: A total of 1 775 healthy Chinese, 536 men and 1 239 women aged between 30 and 70 years old were involved in the present study.

Results: Gender differences in all lipid and lipoprotein levels were clearly evident. Singaporean Chinese men have significantly higher levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (TC/HDL-C), and lower levels of HDL-C than women. Although lipid and lipoprotein levels in men did not change in the different age groups, those in women, especially TC, LDL-C and TC/HDL-C, were significantly higher in older women (> 50 years old) than corresponding levels in younger women (30–46 years old). Furthermore, TG was significantly correlated with lipids and lipoproteins differently in men and women. If 100 mg/dL of LDL-C were to be adopted as the therapeutic cut-off level, then the burden of care will be huge as approximately 90% of both Chinese men and women have LDL-C greater than 100 mg/dL.

Conclusion: In light of the findings of the present study, we suggest that preventive measures to promote the reduction in risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) must address the high proportion of men and women with high LDL-C, and that these measures should take into account both the gender and age factors. For men, reduction of high cholesterol must start early in life, whereas for women, steps must be taken earlier to mitigate the anticipated sharp increase in risk, especially after menopause.

Keywords: total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglyceride, total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases, artheriosclerosis, Asian men and women

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