Association of blood lead concentrations with mortality in older women: a prospective cohort study

Table 5 Hazards Ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval of all cause mortality by blood lead concentrations

Cause of death	Deaths	Blood lead concentration (μg/dL) [μmol/L]		P _value
		(< 8) [< 0.384 ]	(≥ 8) [≥ 0.384 ]
All cause death, n (Col %)	123	96 (21%)	27 (34%)	0.018*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	1.73 (1.12, 2.68)	0.014
Multivariate adjusted ^a		1.0	1.59 (1.02, 2.49)	0.041
Cardiovascular disease ^b, n(%)	54	41(9)	13 (16)	0.044*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	1.90 (1.00, 3.63)	0.054
Multivariate adjusted ^c		1.0	1.78 (0.92, 3.45)	0.089
Coronary heart disease ^d, n (%)	23	15 (4)	8 (11)	0.006*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	3.54 (1.48, 8.45)	0.004
Multivariate adjusted ^e		1.0	3.08 (1.23, 7.70)	0.016
Stroke ^f, n(%)	21	17 (4)	4 (5)	0.578*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	1.16 (0.34, 4.00)	0.816
Multivariate adjusted ^g		1.0	1.13 (0.34, 3.81)	0.840
Cancer ^h, n(%)	38	30 (7)	8 (10)	0.262*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	1.70 (0.77, 3.75)	0.185
Multivariate adjusted ⁱ		1.0	1.64 (0.73, 3.71)	0.231
All other deaths ^j, n(%)	31	25 (7)	6 (10)	0.289*
Age, clinic adjusted		1.0	1.51 (0.61, 3.72)	0.370
Multivariate adjusted ^k		1.0	1.22 (0.48, 3.10)	0.673

*Chi -square p-value only for percentage of deaths in two blood lead strata, the rest are hazards ratio p values.
^a,c,e,g,i,k The multivariate model included the following: age, clinic, BMI, education, smoking, alcohol intake, estrogen use, hypertension, walking for exercise, diabetes, and total hip BMD.
^b ICD9 Code: All deaths due to CVD, including all diseases of circulatory system except those involving veins and lymphatics: 425,429.2, 440–444,428,401–404,410–414,430–438, and 798.
^d ICD9 Code: deaths due to coronary heart disease: 410–414.
^f ICD9 Code: Deaths due to stroke: 430–438.
^h ICD9 Code: Deaths due to cancer: 140–239.
^j ICD9 Code: All other deaths: Non CVD and non cancer deaths

ISSN: 1476-069X