Table 1.
Baseline characteristics (unadjusted) of the Norwegian and New Zealand participants. Participants free of prior CVD.
| Men | Women | |||
| European | Indian | European | Indian | |
| New Zealand cohort | ||||
| N | 63 319 | 9997 | 49 094 | 7039 |
| Age (years) | 55.0 (9.3) | 47.4 (9.7) | 58.7 (8.7) | 52.9 (8.5) |
| Age range | 30.0–74.0 | 30.0–74.0 | 30.0–74.0 | 30.0–74.0 |
| TC (mmol/L) | 5.36 (1.1) | 5.09 (1.1) | 5.68 (1.1) | 5.04 (1.0) |
| HDL cholesterol (mmol/L | 1.29 (0.4) | 1.14 (0.3) | 1.59 (0.5) | 1.30 (0.3) |
| LDL cholesterol (mmol/L) | 3.3 (1.0) | 2.9 (1.0) | 3.4 (1.1) | 2.8 (0.9) |
| TC/HDL ratio | 4.35 (1.3) | 4.60 (1.3) | 3.68 (1.1) | 3.93 (1.1) |
| SBP (mm Hg) | 131.5 (16.3) | 125.3 (16.1) | 131.6 (17.4) | 126.1 (17.4) |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) | 80.5 (10.0) | 79.1 (10.4) | 78.8 (9.7) | 77.4 (9.8) |
| Hypertension* (%) | 40 | 34 | 44 | 39 |
| Type 2 diabetes† (%) | 9 | 24 | 9 | 29 |
| Former smokers (%) | 19 | 6 | 16 | 1 |
| Current smokers (%) | 12 | 9 | 10 | 1 |
| Family history of CVD‡ (%) | 12 | 8 | 15 | 10 |
| Antihypertensive treatment (%) | 24 | 26 | 30 | 32 |
| Lipid-lowering treatment (%) | 18 | 27 | 18 | 27 |
| Follow-up time (years) | 2.94 (2.3) | 2.93 (2.0) | 2.92 (2.3) | 2.83 (1.9) |
| Men | Women | |||
| Norwegian | South Asian | Norwegian | South Asian | |
| Norwegian cohort | ||||
| N | 6385 | 1 239 | 8015 | 967 |
| Age (years) | 43.7 (11.2) | 41.4 (7.8) | 43.9 (10.9) | 40.3 (7.9) |
| Age range | 30.0–70.1 | 30.0–67.8 | 30.0–74.9 | 30.0–65.5 |
| TC (mmol/L) | 5.60 (1.1) | 5.48 (1.0) | 5.41 (1.0) | 4.98 (0.9) |
| HDL cholesterol (mmol/L | 1.31 (0.3) | 1.07 (0.2) | 1.62 (0.4) | 1.24 (0.3) |
| TC/HDL ratio | 4.55 (1.4) | 5.33 (1.4) | 3.52 (1.1) | 4.22 (1.2) |
| SBP (mm Hg) | 132.6 (14.4) | 126.6 (13.2) | 124.0 (15.7) | 119.1 (15.6) |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) | 77.6 (10.8) | 76.9 (9.8) | 71.5 (10.3) | 70.0 (10.1) |
| Hypertension* (%) | 30 | 22 | 19 | 16 |
| Diabetes (%) | 1.6 | 8.6 | 1.4 | 10.9 |
| Former smokers (%) | 28 | 16 | 26 | 2 |
| Current smokers (%) | 26 | 25 | 31 | 1 |
| Family history of heart disease§ (%) | 33 | 24 | 37 | 27 |
| Family history of stroke¶ (%) | 11 | 3 | 13 | 4 |
| Antihypertensive treatment (%) | 6 | 8 | 6 | 9 |
| Lipid-lowering treatment (%) | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| Follow-up time (years) | 8.44 (1.4) | 7.65 (1.4) | 8.54 (1.2) | 7.88 (1.1) |
*Hypertension is defined as having SBP ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg or using blood pressure medication.
†The diabetes variable in the New Zealand data includes people with diabetes of unknown type (5%) and type 2 diabetes (95%), while in the Norwegian data we could not differentiate between different types of diabetes.
‡Family history of CVD in the New Zealand data: self-reported familial history of ischaemic heart disease or ischaemic stroke occurring in a father or brother aged <55 years, or a mother or sister aged <65 years.
§Parents or siblings have had heart attack or angina pectoris (self-report).
¶Parents or siblings have had stroke (self-report).
Data are mean values (SD) for continuous variables and prevalence (%) for categorical variables.
CVD, cardiovascular disease; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; SBP, systolic blood pressure, TC, total cholesterol.