Table 1.
Sample Size, High-Risk Cutoff Point, and Weighted Descriptive Statistics of Biological Variables in NHANES (1988—2006)
| Variable | High-Risk Cutoff Point | Men |
Women |
Difference, p Value* | ||||||
| N | M | SD | % High Risk | N | M | SD | % High Risk | |||
| Inflammation | ||||||||||
| C-reactive protein | >3.0 mg/dL | 18,052 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 19.8 | 19,909 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 34.4 | <.001 |
| Plasma fibrinogen | ≥341/411 mg/dL† | 7,289 | 340.4 | 85.0 | 21.5 | 7,751 | 355.5 | 85.9 | 29.1 | <.001 |
| Urinary albumin | ≤3.5 μg/mL | 18,241 | 19.7 | 54.2 | 22.0 | 20,251 | 17.7 | 47.7 | 27.0 | <.001 |
| Inflammation index (age 40+) | 6,952 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 7,239 | 1.0 | 0.9 | <.001 | |||
| Metabolic factors | ||||||||||
| Waist circumference | >102/88 cm‡ | 18,139 | 98.2 | 15.0 | 36.6 | 19,942 | 92.2 | 16.0 | 55.3 | <.001 |
| Systolic blood pressure | ≥130 mmHg | 17,264 | 124.3 | 16.5 | 15.5 | 18,950 | 121.4 | 21.6 | 17.8 | <.001 |
| Diastolic blood pressure | ≥85 mmHg | 17,263 | 73.1 | 13.2 | 9.0 | 18,949 | 69.5 | 12.9 | 4.9 | <.001 |
| Serum triglycerides | ≥150 mg/dL | 14,607 | 154.6 | 160.8 | 34.8 | 16,155 | 126.6 | 102.9 | 25.6 | <.001 |
| HDL cholesterol | <40 mg/dL | 18,026 | 46.9 | 13.3 | 30.2 | 19,845 | 57.3 | 16.1 | 10.7 | <.001 |
| Fasting glucose | ≥110 mg/dL | 12,438 | 102.6 | 29.8 | 15.7 | 13,727 | 98.6 | 30.7 | 11.8 | <.001 |
| Body mass index | ≥30 kg/m2 | 18,883 | 27.6 | 5.6 | 26.9 | 20,935 | 27.8 | 7.0 | 31.3 | <.001 |
| Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) | ≥6.4% | 18,258 | 5.5 | 0.9 | 6.6 | 20,204 | 5.4 | 0.9 | 5.8 | .031 |
| Metabolic syndrome | 9,317 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 10,163 | 0.1 | 0.4 | <.001 | |||
| Other physiological functions | <.001 | |||||||||
| Serum homocysteine | ≥15 μmol/L | 13,099 | 9.4 | 4.2 | 5.0 | 14,882 | 8.0 | 4.1 | 3.8 | <.001 |
| Peak flow (largest value) | <2113 mL | 7,724 | 3,447.7 | 1,484.1 | 19.4 | 8,735 | 2,691.8 | 1,179.5 | 32.5 | <.001 |
| Creatinine clearance | <66.7 mg/dL | 18,484 | 152.6 | 85.6 | 16.0 | 20,401 | 111.2 | 75.8 | 33.8 | <.001 |
| Allostatic load | 6,775 | 2.3 | 1.9 | 7,710 | 2.6 | 1.9 | <.001 | |||
Notes: Fibrinogen was only measured for respondents aged 40 years and older. The glucose measures require fasting and have smaller samples. Homocysteine was assayed only in the second half of NHANES III (1991–1994). And peak flow was not available for NHANES IV. NHANES = National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. HDL = High Density Lipoprotein.
Top quartile high-risk cutoff points for NHANES III and IV, respectively.
Clinical high-risk cutoff points for men and women, respectively—the clinical criteria for high risk are only sex specific (34).
Test for sex difference in the means (two sided). An α level of .0027 is used to adjust for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni method. All sex differences are significant with the exception of mean HbA1c. Results for sex difference in the % high risk are similar.