A Statistical Study of Serum Cholesterol Level by Gender and Race

Abstract

Background: Cholesterol level (CL) is growing concerned as health issue in human health since it is considered one of the causes in heart diseases. A study of cholesterol level can provide insight about its nature and characteristics.

Study design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANS) II was conducted on a probability sample of approximately 28,000 persons in the USA and cholesterol level is obtained from laboratory results. Samples were selected so that certain population groups thought to be at high risk of malnutrition. Study included 11,864 persons for CL cases with 9,602 males and 2,262 females with races: whites, blacks, and others. Non-parametric statistical tests and goodness of fit test have been used to identify probability distributions.

Results: The study concludes that the cholesterol level exhibits significant racial and gender differences in terms of probability distributions. The study has concluded that white people are relatively higher at risk than black people to have risk line and high-risk cholesterol. The study clearly indicates that black males normally have higher cholesterol. Females have lower variation in cholesterol than males.

Conclusions: There exists gender and racial discrepancies in cholesterol which has been identified as lognormal and gamma probability distributions. White individuals seem to be at a higher risk of having high-risk cholesterol level than blacks. Females tend to have higher variation in cholesterol level than males.