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What percentage of Americans aged 40 to 59 have high cholesterol when their blood is actually tested?

14.2% of Americans aged 40 to 59 have high cholesterol when their blood is actually tested — about 14 in every 100, or 1 in 10. That is the figure published by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2018.

Where this number comes from

Survey

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

What it measured

Measured prevalence of high total cholesterol in the NHANES 2017-2018 examination -- taken by an examiner rather than asked. The interval is derived here as the published estimate plus or minus 1.96 standard errors.

Population

U.S. adults aged 40 to 59

Year

2018

95% confidence interval

11.06% to 17.34% (derived from the published standard error)

Work of the U.S. federal government - public domain. See the source data

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