Prediction of Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease Using Framingham Risk Score in Korean Men

BACKGROUND Currently, there is sparse data available on the relationship between coronary heart disease (CHD) and its risk factors estimated by the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) in Korea. This is particularly true when looking at risk factors of CHD associated with the FRS after adjustment for other covariates especially in healthy subjects. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We conducted a prospective cohort study to examine the association between the risk factors of CHD and the risk for CHD estimated by FRS in 15,239 men in 2005 and 2010. The FRS is based on six coronary risk factors: gender, age, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, systolic blood pressure (BP), and smoking habit. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the relationships between the FRS and risk factors for CHD. This study reported that apolipoproetein B (apoB), apoA-I, apoB/apoA-I, alcohol intake, log-transformed TG, log-transformed hsCRP, LDL-cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, regular exercise, and BMI were significantly associated with the FRS. Above all, the partial R-square of apoB was 14.77%, which was overwhelmingly bigger than that of other variables in model V. This indicated that apoB accounted for 14.77% of the variance in FRS. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE In this study, apoB was found to be the most important determinant for the future development of CHD during a 5-year follow-up in healthy Korean men.