Prevalence of Diagnosed High Cholesterol among Adults by Year, New Mexico and U.S., Odd Years, 2005 to 2017
Indicator Report Data View Options
Why Is This Important?
High cholesterol is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (i.e., heart attack, heart failure, or stroke). Regular physical activity and eating a healthy diet can help prevent high cholesterol and improve cholesterol levels that are not optimal. Smoking can decrease levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, which also increases risk for cardiovascular disease. If lifestyle changes aren't enough to bring cholesterol levels into a healthy range, the addition of medication can often lead to effective control.
Definition
Estimated percentage of New Mexican adults (ages 18 and over) who have ever been told by a doctor, nurse or other health professional that they have high cholesterol. The high cholesterol question is administered only in odd years.
Data Notes
U.S. values are the median of all U.S. states and the District of Columbia for each particular year. Beginning with 2011 estimates, the BRFSS updated its surveillance methods. Therefore, estimates from 2011 and forward cannot be compared to estimates from previous years.Data Sources
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, together with New Mexico Department of Health, Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau.
(https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/brfss/) - U.S. data source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Prevalence and Trends Data.
(https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence)
How the Measure is Calculated
| Numerator: | Number of adults from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System who have ever been told they had high cholesterol by a health professional. |
| Denominator: | Number of adults from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System |
Data Issues
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an ongoing survey of adults about health-related behaviors, health conditions, and preventive services. Data are collected in all 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories. The survey is conducted using scientific telephone survey methods for landline and cellular phones (with cellular since 2011). The landline phone portion of the survey excludes adults living in group quarters such as college dormitories, nursing homes, military barracks, and prisons. The cellular phone portion of the survey includes adult students living in college dormitories but excludes other group quarters. Beginning with 2011, the BRFSS updated its surveillance methods by adding in calls to cell phones and changing its weighting methods. These changes improve BRFSS' ability to take into account the increasing proportion of U.S. adults using only cellular telephones. Because of these changes, the data from years prior to 2011 are not directly comparable to data from 2011 and later. Please see the [[a href="/nmibis-view/docs/Query/BRFSS/BRFSS_fact_sheet_Aug2012.pdf BRFSS Method Change Factsheet]]. Responses have been weighted to reflect the New Mexico adult population by age, sex, ethnicity, geographic region, marital status, education level, home ownership and type of phone. The "missing" and "don't know" responses are not included when calculating a percentage.Health Topic Pages Related to: Cardiovascular Disease - High Cholesterol
Community Health Resources and Links
- Healthy People 2030 Website
- The Guide to Community Preventive Services
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
- County Health Rankings
- Kaiser Family Foundation's StateHealthFacts
Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.