Table 4.

Estimated beneficial effect of lipid-lowering drugs, healthy diet and physical activity on LDL change in the population at risk and the total cohort

Intervention	Mean LDL-cholesterol (mmol/l) change
	Population at risk at baseline			Total cohort (n=4469)
	Total N (N already following the intervention)*	Observed	After intervention†	Observed	After intervention†
Start lipid-lowering drugs	858‡ (515)	−1.04	−3.81	−0.86	−1.07
≥1 SD increase in the AHEI diet score*	3457§ (684)	−0.84	−0.92	−0.86	−0.91
≥1 SD increase in the no of hours of physical activity*	2190¶ (383)	−0.85	−0.96	−0.86	−0.90

^*Here intervention stands for use of a lipid-lowering drug among those needing such a treatment according to the European guidelines, improving diet among those with an AHEI score less than 60, or increasing the duration of physical activity among those with less than 2.5 h/week. 1 SD increase in the AHEI score is 0.6 point and 1 SD increase in physical activity is 17 min/week

^†Decline in LDL-cholesterol estimated for participants who met the criteria for intervention based on effects shown in table 3, model 3.

^‡Participants with cardiovascular disease risk score of 5% or greater or prevalent coronary heart disease or diabetes at baseline, or lipid-lowering medication at baseline or follow-up.

^§Participants with an AHEI score of less than 60 at baseline.

^¶Participants with physical activity for less than 2.5 h/week at baseline.

AHEI, alternate healthy eating index; LDL, low-density lipoprotein.