J Fam Pract. 2002 Apr; 51(4): 370-6.

Treatment of hyperlipidemia.

Henley E, Chang L, Hollander S.

Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, 1601 Parkview Ave., Robkford, IL 61107, USA. ehenley@uic.edu

In 1995 and 1996, US adults made more than 18 million office visits for the evaluation and treatment of hyperlipidemia, including 3.4% of all visits to family physicians. Among visits to family physicians, 4.1% included measurement of cholesterol levels.(1) Overall, mean cholesterol levels decreased from 220 in 1960-1962 to 203 in 1988-1994. During the same time period, the proportion of adults with elevated total cholesterol levels (> 240) decreased from 32% to 19%.(2) Despite this progress, the availability of more effective drugs, guidelines advocating increasingly aggressive treatment, and population-wide goals established in Healthy People 2010 will continue to increase the number of patients seen by family physicians for screening, diagnosis, and treatment of hyperlipidemia.