Menotti A, Puddu PE, Adachi H, et al. - Researchers analyzed ten pooled cohorts of men aged 40-59 years from the Seven Countries Study, to examine the link of serum cholesterol levels with the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality during a follow-up of 50 years. They applied Cox proportional hazards models with CHD fatal events (as dependent variable) as well as cholesterol levels (as independent variables) at year 0, 10 and 25 (in 5 cohorts). They assessed cumulative events during subsequent decades (cumulative approach: CA) and separately in each subsequent decade (partitioned approach: PA). They found a very high ecological correlation of average baseline serum cholesterol levels with CHD mortality. At individual level, a link was evident between serum cholesterol and CHD mortality during 50 years, and in both CA and PA, the link estimated by the Cox’s coefficients (and related hazards ratios) was initially strong, but slightly reduced during later decades. Overall, findings revealed the relative stability of the link of serum cholesterol levels with CHD mortality during at least 40 years following a single cholesterol measurement at baseline in middle-aged men.