Indicator 14: Cholesterol Checked in Past 5 Years

• High serum cholesterol is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, a leading cause of illness and death among older adults. Periodic cholesterol screening is an essential component of preventive health care. Fasting cholesterol levels should be measured every five years for all adults.(1)
• Among the major U.S. racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics were the least likely and non-Hispanic blacks the most likely to have had their cholesterol measured within the past five years in 2003.(2)
• Cholesterol screening within the past five years rose with education levels among older adults in 2003.
• Call to action:
  • Promoting healthy behaviors among older adults
  • Increasing older adults use of clinical preventive services

Location Data C.I.* Rank† Grade‡ United States 90.4 n/a n/a n/a Alabama 88.4 (85.6 - 90.6) 42 Alaska 90.3 (85.6 - 93.5) 27 Arizona 92.2 (89.0 - 94.6) 10 Arkansas 88.6 (86.1 - 90.7) 40 California 94.6 (92.6 - 96.1) 2 Colorado 90.3 (86.7 - 93.0) 27 Connecticut 92.7 (90.4 - 94.4) 7 Delaware 95.0 (92.6 - 96.7) 1 District of Columbia 94.0 (90.7 - 96.3) 3 Florida 90.6 (87.9 - 92.7) 22 Georgia 91.2 (89.0 - 93.0) 16 Hawaii§ 89.0 (85.9 - 91.5) 34 Idaho 88.0 (85.7 - 90.0) 45 Illinois 88.2 (85.8 - 90.3) 43 Indiana 91.4 (89.5 - 93.1) 15 Iowa 90.5 (88.5 - 92.2) 24 Kansas 88.9 (86.5 - 90.9) 36 Kentucky 87.2 (84.7 - 89.3) 49 Louisiana 86.6 (84.0 - 88.9) 51 Maine 90.0 (86.5 - 92.6) 29 Maryland 92.7 (90.1 - 94.7) 7 Massachusetts 93.3 (91.4 - 94.8) 4 Michigan 89.9 (87.1 - 92.1) 30 Minnesota 90.4 (88.0 - 92.5) 26 Mississippi 88.9 (86.5 - 90.8) 36 Missouri 88.5 (85.8 - 90.7) 41 Montana 87.6 (84.4 - 90.2) 46 Nebraska 87.5 (85.4 - 89.4) 47 Nevada 89.6 (85.6 - 92.6) 31 New Hampshire 91.6 (89.2 - 93.5) 12 New Jersey 91.2 (89.7 - 92.6) 16 New Mexico 86.9 (84.6 - 88.9) 50 New York 90.5 (88.1 - 92.5) 24 North Carolina 91.5 (89.6 - 93.1) 14 North Dakota 91.1 (88.6 - 93.1) 19 Ohio 91.0 (88.3 - 93.1) 20 Oklahoma 88.8 (87.1 - 90.3) 39 Oregon 88.9 (86.4 - 91.0) 36 Pennsylvania 93.1 (91.2 - 94.6) 5 Rhode Island 92.5 (89.4 - 94.7) 9 South Carolina 93.1 (91.3 - 94.6) 5 South Dakota 89.4 (87.4 - 91.1) 32 Tennessee 91.6 (88.3 - 94.0) 12 Texas 88.2 (85.8 - 90.3) 43 Utah 87.4 (83.8 - 90.3) 48 Vermont 90.7 (88.4 - 92.5) 21 Virginia 90.6 (88.0 - 92.6) 22 Washington 91.2 (90.0 - 92.2) 16 West Virginia 92.1 (89.8 - 94.0) 11 Wisconsin 89.0 (86.1 - 91.4) 34 Wyoming 89.1 (86.3 - 91.3) 33

Make comparisons Healthy People 2010 Targets

= Upper Third (top performing 33%)   = Middle Third (middle 33%)   = Lower Third (lowest performing 33%)         * A confidence interval (CI) describes the level of uncertainty of an estimate and specifies the range in which the true value is likely to fall. The State of Aging and Health in America online report uses a 95% level of significance, which means that 95% of the time, the true value falls within these boundaries.         † Rankings are based on the relative numeric scores for each indicator, with a ranking of "1" indicating the highest rank.         ‡ Grades are calculated as tertiles (thirds) and show state performance relative to all other states.         § 2003 data are used for Hawaii because no 2004 data exist.           Note: When comparing prevalence of variables across states or years, we recommend the use of confidence intervals. If the confidence intervals overlap, the difference is not statistically significant.