This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (105)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Nutritional and Metabolic Disorders  • Lipids and Lipid Disorders  • Hypertension  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Time to End the "Only-50%" Myth

Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:2657-2660.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A FREQUENT CLAIM

The prevention and control of coronary heart disease (CHD) remains one of the world's great public health challenges. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of premature death and disability among developed countries, despite impressive declines in CHD death rates among many of those countries during the past 3 decades.^1-4 Coronary heart disease is projected to become the leading cause of death among developing nations by 2020.⁵

Many modifiable CHD risk factors have been identified during the past 50 years. However, only a small number have been consistently found to meet the accepted public health criteria of causation and to be of major importance from a population perspective. The most important modifiable risk factors are high blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and cigarette smoking. The population occurrence of the first 2 factors is determined by diet, physical inactivity, body weight, and their interplay.⁶ In theory and practice, each of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

HOW MUCH OF THE POPULATION OCCURRENCE OF CHD IS EXPLAINED BY THE ESTABLISHED RISK FACTORS?
Risk Factors and Assessment of Their Contribution

The Real Contribution

ORIGIN AND PERPETUATION OF THE ONLY-50% CLAIM

CONCLUSIONS


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Relation between coronary atherosclerotic plaques and traditional risk factors in people with no history of cardiovascular disease undergoing multi-detector computed coronary angiography
Faletra et al.
Heart 2009;95:1265-1272.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Coronary Artery Calcium Score as Indications of Subclinical Atherosclerosis
Lester et al.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2009;84:229-233.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Successful Aging: The Role of Physical Activity
Chodzko-Zajko et al.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF LIFESTYLE MEDICINE 2009;3:20-28.
ABSTRACT  

Von Willebrand Factor, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: The Framingham Offspring Study
Frankel et al.
Circulation 2008;118:2533-2539.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Simple Algorithm to Predict Incident Kidney Disease
Kshirsagar et al.
Arch Intern Med 2008;168:2466-2473.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

What explains declining coronary mortality? Lessons and warnings
Capewell and O'Flaherty
Heart 2008;94:1105-1108.
FULL TEXT  

Prevalence trends for myocardial infarction and conventional risk factors among Greek adults (2002-06)
Gikas et al.
QJM 2008;101:705-712.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Fate of Incidental, Asymptomatic Lesions Discovered During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
Caymaz and Yuksel
ANGIOLOGY 2008;59:193-197.
ABSTRACT  

Lipid Levels in the Post-Acute Coronary Syndrome Setting: Destabilizing Another Myth?
Miller
J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;51:1446-1447.
FULL TEXT  

Prognostic role of flow-mediated dilation and cardiac risk factors in post-menopausal women.
Rossi et al.
J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;51:997-1002.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Preventing Heart Disease in the 21st Century: Implications of the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) Study
McGill et al.
Circulation 2008;117:1216-1227.
FULL TEXT  

Socioeconomic Position, Co-Occurrence of Behavior-Related Risk Factors, and Coronary Heart Disease: the Finnish Public Sector Study
Kivimaki et al.
AJPH 2007;97:874-879.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cardiovascular disease prevention in primary care
Chauhan
Br Med Bull 2007;0:ldm002v1-15.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Multiple Biomarkers for the Prediction of First Major Cardiovascular Events and Death
Wang et al.
NEJM 2006;355:2631-2639.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Narrative Review: Assessment of C-Reactive Protein in Risk Prediction for Cardiovascular Disease
Lloyd-Jones et al.
ANN INTERN MED 2006;145:35-42.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Explaining the social gradient in coronary heart disease: comparing relative and absolute risk approaches
Lynch et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2006;60:436-441.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thyroid Status, Cardiovascular Risk, and Mortality in Older Adults
Cappola et al.
JAMA 2006;295:1033-1041.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Joint Effects of Systolic Blood Pressure and Serum Cholesterol on Cardiovascular Disease in the Asia Pacific Region
Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration
Circulation 2005;112:3384-3390.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

High Attributable Risk of Elevated C-Reactive Protein Level to Conventional Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors: The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Miller et al.
Arch Intern Med 2005;165:2063-2068.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Lifestyle and cardiovascular disease in middle-aged British men: the effect of adjusting for within-person variation
Emberson et al.
Eur Heart J 2005;26:1774-1782.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Race/Ethnicity, Income, Major Risk Factors, and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality
Thomas et al.
AJPH 2005;95:1417-1423.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Commentary: Incubation of coronary heart disease--recent developments
McCarron and Davey Smith
Int J Epidemiol 2005;34:248-250.
FULL TEXT  

Relative Importance of Borderline and Elevated Levels of Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors
Vasan et al.
ANN INTERN MED 2005;142:393-402.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Increasing trends of acute myocardial infarction in Spain: the MONICA-Catalonia Study
Sans et al.
Eur Heart J 2005;26:505-515.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Associations of components of adult height with coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women: the British women's heart and health study
Lawlor et al.
Heart 2004;90:745-749.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Parental Cardiovascular Disease as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease in Middle-aged Adults: A Prospective Study of Parents and Offspring
Lloyd-Jones et al.
JAMA 2004;291:2204-2211.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Social class differences in coronary heart disease in middle-aged British men: implications for prevention
Emberson et al.
Int J Epidemiol 2004;33:289-296.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Anxiety, depression, and prognosis after myocardial infarction: Is there a causal association?
Lane et al.
J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1808-1810.
FULL TEXT  

From Vulnerable Plaque to Vulnerable Patient: A Call for New Definitions and Risk Assessment Strategies: Part II
Naghavi et al.
Circulation 2003;108:1772-1778.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The importance of cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking for coronary heart disease
Lewington
Eur Heart J 2003;24:1703-1704.
FULL TEXT  

Re-assessing the contribution of serum total cholesterol, blood pressure and cigarette smoking to the aetiology of coronary heart disease: impact of regression dilution bias
Emberson et al.
Eur Heart J 2003;24:1719-1726.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Major Risk Factors as Antecedents of Fatal and Nonfatal Coronary Heart Disease Events
Greenland et al.
JAMA 2003;290:891-897.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Prevalence of Conventional Risk Factors in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease
Khot et al.
JAMA 2003;290:898-904.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Emerging Risk Factors for Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: A Critical Review of the Evidence
Hackam and Anand
JAMA 2003;290:932-940.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Improving Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: Can a Picture Make the Difference?
Greenland
JAMA 2003;289:2270-2272.
FULL TEXT  

Birth Weight and Blood Cholesterol Level: A Study in Adolescents and Systematic Review
Owen et al.
Pediatrics 2003;111:1081-1089.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The search for new risk factors for coronary heart disease: occupational therapy for epidemiologists?
Beaglehole and Magnus
Int J Epidemiol 2002;31:1117-1122.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Commentary: The epidemiology of self-deprecation
Nieto
Int J Epidemiol 2002;31:1124-1127.
FULL TEXT  

Commentary: Lifelong prevention of atherosclerosis: the critical importance of major risk factor exposures
Greenland et al.
Int J Epidemiol 2002;31:1129-1134.
FULL TEXT  

Psychosocial risk factors for heart disease in France and Northern Ireland: The Prospective Epidemiological Study of Myocardial Infarction (PRIME)
Sykes et al.
Int J Epidemiol 2002;31:1227-1234.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

McCarron et al. Respond to "Height-Cardiovascular Disease Relation": Are All Risk Factors Equal?
McCarron et al.
Am J Epidemiol 2002;155:690-691.
FULL TEXT