Fasting hypertriglyceridemia in relation to mortality in an elderly male Chinese population

Abstract

Abstract We investigated fasting hypertriglyceridemia as predictors of all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular mortality in an elderly male Chinese population, while accounting for various conventional cardiovascular risk factors. Our participants were elderly men recruited from residents living in a suburban town of Shanghai (≥60 years of age, n = 1583). Hypertriglyceridemia was defined as a fasting serum triglycerides concentration ≥1.70 mmol/L. Subgroup analyses were performed according to current smoking (yes vs. no), alcohol intake (yes vs. no), and the presence and absence of hypertension and hyperglycemia. During a median of 7.9 years follow‐up, all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular deaths occurred in 279, 112, and 167 participants, respectively. After adjustment for confounding factors, fasting hypertriglyceridemia was not significantly (p ≥ .33) associated with the risk of all‐cause, cardiovascular, and non‐cardiovascular mortality. However, there was significant (p = .03) interaction between hypertriglyceridemia and the presence and absence of hypertension in relation to all‐cause mortality. In normotensive, but not hypertensive individuals, hypertriglyceridemia was significantly associated with a higher risk of all‐cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.57, 95% confidence interval 1.06–2.31). In further non‐parametric analyses in normotensive individuals, the age‐standardized rate for all‐cause mortality increased from 18.9 in quartile 1 to 20.0, to 24.7, and to 39.9 per 1000 person‐years in quartiles 2, 3, and 4 of serum triglycerides concentration, respectively (ptrend = .0004). Similar results were observed for cardiovascular mortality. Our study in elderly male Chinese showed that fasting hypertriglyceridemia was associated with a higher risk of all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with normotension but not those with hypertension.

Keywords

• fasting hypertriglyceridemia
• hypertension
• mortality
• normotension
• serum triglycerides