Blood pressure, cholesterol, and common causes of death: a review

Many prospective observational studies have reported on associations of blood pressure and blood cholesterol with cardiovascular disease, but few have been large enough to provide reliable estimates of the nature of these associations in different circumstances (or on the associations with nonvascular causes of death). Moreover, almost all such reports have related risk of disease to baseline measurements of the risk factor of interest, which can lead to substantial underestimation of the importance of the risk factor due to the regression dilution bias. By appropriate combination of individual participant data from all such studies in a systematic meta-analysis, with correction for regression dilution, the Prospective Studies Collaboration will characterize more precisely than has previously been possible the age- and gender-specific relevance of blood pressure and blood cholesterol to particular causes of death.