Glostrup Study

Background/Question:

This community-based prospective study was designed to examine the physiological and environmental factors related to the development of arteriosclerotic heart disease.

Population/Methods:

The invited population included 515 men and 461 women aged 50 years (all those born in 1914) and living at the time in the Copenhagen county of Glostrup. Of those invited, 85% came for the initial examination, leaving a population of 436 men and 366 women. The initial examination included a social and medical questionnaire, blood tests, urine tests, pulmonary function tests, physical examination, anthropometric measurements, blood pressure measurements, ECG, exercise test, ophthalmoscopic exam, and a radiological exam.

Results:

Initial results confirmed that men have a greater and increasing coronary morbidity . The study appeared to show a relationship among heredity, body build, blood type and obesity. Cholesterol levels were seen to increase with age until 50 years and then fall slowly, with men having higher values than women in all age groups. Diabetes mellitus did not show a connection and it was concluded that there was no evidence to consider it a risk factor. Blood pressure was strongly correlated with obesity and resting pulse. The study confirmed earlier results that serum uric acid was higher in men. It also showed no relationship among serum uric acid, blood groups and body structure, despite a relationship with obesity in both sexes. Smoking was linked with angina pectoris, however relations with resting pulse, blood pressure, and serum creatinine varied by sex. Physical activity was correlated with obesity but not with any of the other variables.

Conclusions/Discussion:

This study concluded that more research was needed on sex differences in cardiovascular disease despite many differences in risk factors found between women and men. It also was able to formulate a hypothesis on what risk factors were significant in cardiovascular disease and provide a starting point for more detailed studies on risk factors. Over the last 40 years the Glostrup population has been studied according to age range and birth years among the sexes. (FB/HB)