Table 1. Characteristics of 12 studies included in the meta-analysis.

First author	Year	Country	Age	Sample size	Gender	Study population	Outcomes	Ethnicity
Acton	1999	Spain	37.23 ± 13.38	489	M/F	healthy subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
Osgood	2003	America	51.7	2630	M/F	randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
Morabia	2004	Switzerland	50.24 ± 10.32	1756	M/F	randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
Tanaka	2007	Argentina	22.74 ± 4.99	59	M	healthy male	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
Wu1	2012	China	40.22 ± 15.18	598	M/F	Bai Ku Yao, randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	Asian
Wu2	2012	China	52.55 ± 14.78	801	M/F	Mulao, randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	Asian
Wu3	2012	China	51.40 ± 15.14	807	M/F	Han, randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	Asian
Smalinskiene	2013	Lithuanian	46.78 ± 10.54	1025	M/F	healthy subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
McCarthy1	2003	America	60.9 ± 10.7	304	F	subjects from families originally ascertained for type 2 diabetes from Ashkenazi	HDL-C	non-Asian
McCarthy2	2003	America	60.4 ± 12.5	328	F	subjects from families originally ascertained for type 2 diabetes from Helsinki	HDL-C	non-Asian
McCarthy3	2003	America	59.9 ± 12.5	215	F	subjects from families originally ascertained for type 2 diabetes from Malmo	HDL-C	non-Asian
McCarthy4	2003	America	47.6	100	F	premature CAD subjects	HDL-C, TG	non-Asian
Stanislovaitiene	2013	Lithuania	Non	1976	M/F	randomly selected subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	non-Asian
Boekholdt	2006	Netherlands	56 ± 8	546	M	CAD subjects	HDL-C	non-Asian
Guo1	2015	China	55.80 ± 7.72	143	M/F	healthy subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	Asian
Guo2	2015	China	60.55 ± 8.42	370	M/F	CAD subjects	TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C	Asian

M: male, F: female, CAD: coronary heart disease, TG: triglyceride, TC: total cholesterol, LDL-C: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, HDL-C: high-density lipoprotein cholesterol