Many cardiovascular risk factors related to all-cause mortality
In the Seven Countries Study age, systolic blood pressure, smoking and serum cholesterol predicted 25-year all-cause mortality in most cohorts. These risk factors were also predictive of 40-year all-cause mortality in the US railroad and the Cretan cohort. An analysis of the European cohorts showed that systolic blood pressure remained a strong predictor of excess relative risk of all-cause mortality during 35 years of follow-up. The strength of the association declined with increasing follow-up years (aging) while absolute risk increased greatly with age.
In the rural Italian cohorts other risk factors were also related to 40-year all-cause mortality, namely: mortality of father and mother before age 60, job-related physical activity (inversely related), body mass index (inverse J-shaped), mid-arm circumference (inversely related), lung function (inversely related) and the presence of corneal arcus, xanthalasmata and of any category of clinical CVD, diabetes or cancer at entry.