Table 2.

Cumulative Probability of Mortality (Unadjusted) Over an 18-Year Period and Age-adjusted Hazard Ratios for Death (Underlying Cause) by Decile of Alanine Aminotransferase Level (n = 14,950), United States, 1988–2006

Mortality Outcome and Decile of ALT Levela	No. of Deaths	Unadjusted Cumulative Mortalityb	Age-adjusted Hazard Ratioc	95% Confidence Interval	P Value
All causes
1	816	34.6	1.61	1.41, 1.83	<0.001
2	393	29.4	1.42	1.20, 1.68	<0.001
3	494	26.6	1.28	1.08, 1.53	0.006
4–9	1,760	17.5	1.00
10	211	17.4	1.33	1.06, 1.66	0.014
Cardiovascular disease
1	329	16.2	1.64	1.35, 1.98	<0.001
2	159	9.3	1.32	1.00, 1.75	0.047
3	187	11.6	1.26	0.90, 1.75	0.17
4–9	626	6.6	1.00
10	63	4.2	1.23	0.83, 1.81	0.30
Cancer
1	173	8.6	1.73	1.35, 2.21	<0.001
2	89	11.0	1.64	1.21, 2.22	0.002
3	114	7.1	1.46	1.02, 2.08	0.038
4–9	398	4.4	1.00
10	44	5.2	0.95	0.61, 1.48	0.82
Diabetes mellitus
1	19	0.63	1.06	0.44, 2.55	0.89
2	11	0.76	1.86	0.77, 4.52	0.16
3	12	0.18	0.41	0.20, 0.85	0.017
4–9	63	0.54	1.00
10	11	1.7	2.74	0.97, 7.73	0.056
Liver diseased
1	2	0.004	0.02	0.003, 0.12	<0.001
2	1	0.046	0.25	0.036, 1.71	0.15
3	3	0.028	0.15	0.031, 0.73	0.020
4–9	15	0.20	1.00
10	16	0.70	5.27	1.59, 17.46	0.008
Other
1	293	14.1	1.54	1.28, 1.85	<0.001
2	133	11.8	1.35	1.07, 1.69	0.011
3	178	10.4	1.27	1.00, 1.62	0.049
4–9	658	6.9	1.00
10	77	6.8	1.47	1.07, 2.02	0.017

Abbreviation: ALT, alanine aminotransferase.

^a ALT cutpoints were 9, 11, 13, and 33 IU/L for men and 7, 8, 9, and 22 IU/L for women.

^b Estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis.

^c Estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with age as a continuous variable.

^d Nonmalignant liver disease.