Table 1:
Characteristics of current users and nonusers of lipid-lowering medications, men in ARIC at visit 4 (1996 – 1999)
| All men | Black men | White men | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current lipid-lowering drug use at visit 4 (1996–1999) | ||||||
| No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | |
| N | 3,934 | 953 | 836 | 105 | 3,098 | 848 |
| Age (years) | 63 | 64 | 62 | 63 | 63 | 64 |
| Black (%) | 21.3 | 11.0 | - | - | - | - |
| Education (%) | ||||||
| Less than high school graduate | 20.2 | 17.3 | 37.8 | 34.3 | 15.4 | 15.2 |
| High school graduate, vocational school, some college | 36.9 | 38.0 | 26.7 | 24.8 | 39.7 | 39.6 |
| College graduate, some graduate school, graduate degree | 42.7 | 44.5 | 35.2 | 40.0 | 44.8 | 45.1 |
| Missing | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Height (cm) | 176 | 175 | 176 | 176 | 176 | 175 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 28.4 | 29 | 28.3 | 29.9 | 28.4 | 28.9 |
| Waist-to-hip ratio | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.98 | 0.99 |
| Cigarette smoking status (%) | ||||||
| Never | 31.9 | 25.5 | 30.7 | 33.3 | 32.2 | 24.5 |
| Former/quit ≥10 years ago | 39.0 | 48.6 | 29.2 | 38.1 | 41.6 | 49.9 |
| Current/quit <10 years ago | 29.1 | 25.9 | 40.1 | 28.6 | 26.2 | 25.6 |
| Diabetes status (%) | ||||||
| No | 43.9 | 35.2 | 40.9 | 23.8 | 44.6 | 36.5 |
| At risk for diabetes | 39.4 | 39.3 | 36.1 | 40.0 | 40.3 | 39.3 |
| Undiagnosed diabetes | 5.1 | 4.9 | 6.7 | 1.9 | 4.7 | 5.3 |
| Diabetes | 11.6 | 20.6 | 16.3 | 34.3 | 10.4 | 18.9 |
| Ever hypertensive (%) | 49.8 | 66.0 | 69.0 | 85.7 | 44.6 | 63.6 |
| Ever elevated cholesterol (%) | 25.4 | 54.9 | 30.3 | 65.7 | 24.1 | 53.5 |
| Baseline health insurance (%) | 92.4 | 95.9 | 78.8 | 83.8 | 96.0 | 97.4 |
*
- Values are means or percentages. All characteristics are assessed at visit 4, unless otherwise indicated. Visit 4 was chosen because by this point statins had been on the market for several years and 76% of the lipid-lowering medications used by ARIC participants were statins.