Figure 1

Estimated relative risk of death among U.S. adults aged 20 years and older with diagnosed diabetes, the NHANES III Linked Mortality Study, 1988-2006. The red solid line indicates the fitted relationship between the relative risk of death from total CVD (A), IHD (B), stroke (C), and other CVD (D) in relation to the continuum of serum non-HDL-C concentrations with a 3-knot cubic regression spline. The blue dashed lines indicate the 95% confidence intervals surrounding the estimates. Adults with a serum non-HDL-C concentration of 130 mg/dL were set as the reference group. Relative risks (hazard ratios) and their 95% CIs were adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, education attainment, diabetes duration, body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption, systolic blood pressure, serum HDL-C concentration, glomerular filtration rate, C-reactive protein, glycated hemoglobin A1C, and self-reported use of prescribed medicine to lower blood cholesterol. N = 1,122. To convert non-HDL-C concentration in mg/dL to mmol/L, multiply by 0.02586.N Abbreviations: CVD, cardiovascular disease; IHD, ischemic heart disease; NHANES III, Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; Non-HDL-C, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.