Blood cholesterol trends 2001-2011 in the United States: analysis of 105 million patient records.

OBJECTIVES: We report annual trends in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) from an in-care patient population of nearly 105 million adults across the United States (U.S.), from 2001 through 2011. BACKGROUND: Average blood cholesterol values have declined in the U.S. since at least 1960. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) reported declining blood cholesterol values from 1999 through 2010. In the absence of more recent published data, we examined LDL-C values from a single clinical laboratory database to determine whether these values continued to decline through 2011. METHODS AND RESULTS: We extracted almost 247 million LDL-C results from nearly 105 million adults who received diagnostic testing from a single national clinical laboratory. Annual age-adjusted mean LDL-C values were calculated, and analyzed by gender. Piecewise regression analysis of the total study population indicates a breakpoint, or change in slope, in the years following 2008 (F = 163.13; p