Glucose intolerance, diabetes and coronary heart disease

Glucose intolerance and diabetes associated with the risk of fatal CHD

Dutch men aged 50-69 with glucose intolerance at entry, followed for 15 years, had a 2-fold greater risk of fatal CHD compared to men with normal glucose tolerance. A similar result was obtained for men who entered the study with clinical diabetes.

Glucose testing

In 1970 in the Zutphen Study, a glucose tolerance test was carried out with an oral load of 50 g glucose. Blood samples were taken after 30, 60, 120 and 150 minutes. The area under the curve of glucose values was calculated and ‘glucose intolerance’ was based on values above the median.

About the Zutphen Elderly Study

The Zutphen Elderly Study is an extension of the original Zutphen Study with a sample of the same age where detailed information on the diet of all the participants was collected four times between 1985 and 2000.  Read more about the Zutphen (Elderly) Study.

More about healthy aging

From 1984 onwards, additional studies started to examine indicators of healthy ageing in the elderly populations of in the SCS and related studies.


Smoking and cardiovascular disease

An analysis using data from Seven Countries Study showed that CHD mortality was 5% higher in men who smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day compared to those who never smoked.

Hand-grip strength and disability

Hand-grip strength related to lower disability Hand-grip strength at baseline was inversely related to 4-year disability in rural elderly men in Italy. Of the [...]

More about diabetes and glucose intolerance