RESUMO
Extensive clinical and statistical studies have identified several factors that increase the risk of coronary heart disease(CHD). This study is another attempt to identify the factors that increase the risk for CHD as it is an extremely important area in health sciences. Utilizing the Framingham data about a wide variety of risk factors associated with CHD,researchers are now working to develop better tools to assess overall risk. The incidence of CHD was recorded along with patients age, sex and cholesterol level in the study. Logistic regression was used to model the log odds of developing CHD as a function of cholesterol category (0: < 190 mg/100 ml, 1: 190-219 mg/ml, 2: 220-249 mg/100ml, 37 colon; 250 mg/100ml), adjusting for age, sex and their interaction. The analysis showed that serum cholesterol level is a risk factor of coronary heart disease, but its effect is modified by the age category of the subjects. Sex is also associated with CHD, and moreover the effect of age on the 12-year incidence of CHD is gender-dependent.