Worldwide efforts to lower 'bad' cholesterol working: study

(The Oxford Press) UPDATED 2009-06-22

A new study funded by drugmaker Pfizer has found that global efforts to lower bad (LDL) cholesterol levels have been working in the past decade. For the study, investigators looked at data on 10,000 patients from nine countries. They found that 73 percent had reached their target level of bad cholesterol, nearly double the number of people who had reached this goal when the survey was first conducted in 1996-1997. Data also showed that 75 percent of those surveyed were on a statin drug to lower cholesterol for an average duration of about two years, while others either used other drugs or or made only lifestyle changes. But researchers also found that among very high risk patients, only 30 percent were meeting their bad cholesterol level goals. Pfizer is the maker of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. Read full story >

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