A combination of serum low albumin and above-average cholesterol level was associated with excess mortality

There is no population-based prospective study concerning the relation between serum albumin and mortality in a non-Western population, and few previous studies included the subgroup analysis stratified by serum cholesterol level. A 13.7-year cohort study was conducted on 6,957 males and females aged 30-59 years from 300 randomly selected areas throughout Japan, who participated in the National Survey on Circulatory Disorders in 1980. In the group with median and above of total cholesterol, one standard deviation (SD) increment of serum albumin (2.6 g/L for males and 2.4 g/L for females) was inversely associated with all-cause mortality for both males and females (relative risk RR = 0.68 and 0.81; 95% confidence interval CI = 0.53-0.87 and 0.68-0.98), and with cancer mortality for females (RR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.57-0.96); and the lowest category of serum albumin (≤43 g/L) showed the highest cardiovascular mortality for males (RR = 5.04; 95% CI = 1.04-24.5) among the three albumin categories. These relationships were not evident in the group with total cholesterol level below median. A combination of a low albumin level and above average cholesterol level, even both within the clinical normal range, is associated with excess mortality in the Japanese general population.