Familial aggregation of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and total triglyceride levels in plasma

Familial aggregation of plasma cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglyceride was assessed on the basis of 139 white families consisting of the parents and one child, 16-18 years of age, drawn from families who had previously participated in the Collaborative Perinatal Health Study of Boston Hospital for Women in 1959-1968. The level of these lipids in the child was highly correlated with the average parental value for the respective lipids (cholesterol r = 0.43, HDL-C r = 0.36, triglyceride r = 0.42), with p<0.001 for each). These correlations could not be explained by ponderosity. Parental values were not mutually correlated.