Table 1. Background characteristics of the nine cohorts.
| FINRISK Eastern Finland | FINRISK South western Finland | ATBC, Southern Finland | PRIME Lille, France | PRIME Toulouse France | PRIME Strasbourg France | PRIME Belfast UK | MONICA KORA Augsburg Germany | Northern Sweden | |
| Baseline characteristics | |||||||||
| Total number | 3391 | 2817 | 4565 | 2358 | 2413 | 2276 | 2543 | 4505 | 1353 |
| Age (years) | 46.5 (12.5) | 47.3 (13.0) | 62.7 (4.9) | 55.2 (2.9) | 54.9 (2.8) | 54.7 (2.9) | 54.8 (2.9) | 53.4 (10.8) | 45.2 (11.2) |
| Cholesterol | |||||||||
| Total, mmol/L | 5.64 (1.08) | 5.53 (1.08) | 5.94 (1.03) | 5.74 (0.96) | 5.52 (0.89) | 5.81 (0.99) | 5.88 (1.02) | 6.21 (1.18) | 6.22 (1.25) |
| HDL mmol/L | 1.27 (0.32) | 1.25 (0.31) | 1.18 (0.31) | 1.34 (0.33) | 1.25 (0.30) | 1.26 (0.34) | 1.19 (0.32) | 1.29 (0.39) | 1.26 (0.31) |
| Ratio of total to HDL | 4.71 (1.52) | 4.67 (1.49) | 5.40 (1.89) | 4.57 (1.50) | 4.68 (1.41) | 4.91 (1.60) | 5.27 (1.58) | 5.34 (5.15) | 5.24 (1.65) |
| Blood pressure | |||||||||
| Systolic (mm Hg) | 139.6 (18.8) | 138.3 (18.0) | 141.5 (18.3) | 138.7 (19.1) | 126.6 (14.8) | 135.0 (18.3) | 134.0 (20.4) | 138.3 (18.6) | 129.6 (16.9) |
| Diastolic (mm Hg) | 83.8 (11.8) | 84.9 (11.6) | 84.9 (10.1) | 86.5 (12.2) | 79.5 (9.8) | 86.7 (11.1) | 81.9 (11.5) | 83.9 (11.5) | 82.6 (11.2) |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 27.0 (4.0) | 26.7 (3.8) | 26.8 (4.1) | 26.5 (3.5) | 26.3 (3.2) | 27.4 (3.5) | 26.2 (3.4) | 27.4 (3.5) | 25.9 (3.5) |
| Daily smoker | 979 (28.9) | 849 (30.1) | 3569 (78.2) | 429 (18.2) | 443 (18.4) | 383 (16.8) | 591 (23.2) | 1206 (26.8) | 277 (20.5) |
| Current drug therapy | |||||||||
| Lipid lowering | 83 (2.4) | 68 (2.4) | NA | 310 (13.1) | 330 (13.7) | 228 (10.0) | 30 (1.2) | NA | 8 (0.6) |
| High BP medication | 424 (12.5) | 293 (10.4) | NA | 365 (15.5) | 328 (13.6) | 283 (12.4) | 223 (8.8) | 524 (11.6) | 78 (5.8) |
| History of diabetes | 168 (5.0) | 109 (3.9) | 233 (5.1) | 127 (5.4) | 106 (4.4) | 100 (4.4) | 48 (1.9) | 237 (5.3) | 30 (2.2) |
| History of hypertension | 1188 (35.0) | 897 (31.8) | NA | 586 (24.9) | 596 (24.7) | 505 (22.2) | 397 (15.6) | 1375 (30.5) | 224 (16.6) |
| Prevalent cases N, % | |||||||||
| stroke | 75 (2.2) | 58 (2.1) | 194 (4.2) | 18 (0.8) | 9 (0.4) | 15 (0.7) | 15 (0.6) | 78 (1.7) | 17 (1.3) |
| Family history of CHD | 924 (27.2) | 531 (18.8) | NA | 205 (8.7) | 176 (7.3) | 136 (6.0) | 449 (17.7) | 801 (17.8) | 132 (9.8) |
| Person years of Follow-up | C3 = 16,160 | C3 = 17,381 | 29158 | 22,766 | 22,518 | 21,898 | 12,333 | C1 = 19,468 | C2 = 5413 |
| C24 = 17,878 | C24 = 12,436 | C2 = 16,829 | C3 = 3829 | ||||||
| C3 = 10,836 | |||||||||
| Incident CHD events during follow-up N, % | |||||||||
| men | 254 (7.5) | 184 (6.5) | 436 (9.6) | 137 (5.8) | 145 (6.0) | 131 (5.8) | 106 (4.2) | 304 (6.7) | 39 (2.9) |
| Random subsample of the case cohort set | |||||||||
| men | 404 (11.9) | 298 (10.6) | 961 (21.1) | 116 (4.9) | 121 (5.0) | 125 (5.5) | 160 (6.3) | 1121 (24.9) | 84 (6.2) |
Data are mean (SD) or number %. NA = not available, C = cohort. As ATBC and MONICA-KORA did not collect information on current drug therapy, these were considered as ‘no medication’ for the analysis.