An epidemiological study on the relationships among HDL-cholesterol, smoking and obesity.

The relationships among high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and other serum lipid items, and active smoking, passive smoking, obesity, alcohol drinking and working status were investigated. This study was performed both in healthy adults and in schoolchildren. The adult group was sampled at random from those who were diagnosed to be healthy by medical examination at the Automated Multiphasic Health Testing and Services Center in Tokai University Hospital, and the schoolchildren group was selected with regular health examinations in a primary school in Tokyo. In the case of adults, it was found that the greater the value of triglyceride (TG), the greater the number of cigarettes smoked. On the other hand, HDL-C decreased with increasing cigarette smoking. Obesity level increased with increasing values of TG, total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) but in the case of HDL-C, the value decreased. Alcohol drinking made the HDL-C level increase. Although the HDL-C level increased slightly with obesity, the relationship between HDL-C and passive smoking was not clear in the case of schoolchildren.