Modelling progression of lipid levels

BackgroundScreening and long-term monitoring of cholesterol levels requires interpretation of initial levels and also of sequential levels over time. 29 When such quantities are measured, we can think of the observed value as a product of the true underlying value and its variability. Interpretation of observed levels must therefore consider the short-term within-person variability and the long-term variability among individuals in the population. 11 Previous research examining variation in cholesterol levels in an Australian population and a Japanese population used statistical models to quantify within-individual changes over time and variations between individuals, both in the level of cholesterol and in the rate of change. 30, 31 This methodology has since been extended to allow for uncertainty in the initial measurement as well as subsequent monitoring tests. 32 In this chapter we model the progression of lipid …