Blood cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance made by your liver. Blood cholesterol is involved in making hormones and digesting fatty foods among other tasks. Too much LDL (low-density lipoprotein) may build up in arteries blocking blood flow. 

High cholesterol does not have signs or symptoms; therefore, routinely having blood cholesterol levels checked is important.  Nationally, 85.2% of adults have had their cholesterol checked in the past 5 years.  In Connecticut, that prevalence is 88.6%.

The prevalence of Connecticut adults who have had their blood cholesterol checked within the last five years remained constant.  There appears to be an increase from 2015 to 2017 but these values cannot be compared because of a change in survey methodology.

To improve the precision of the estimates, two years of data were aggregated. The years listed on the x-axis of the chart represent the end-point of the two years . For example, the 2003 data point includes 2001 and 2003. However, the data point for 2011 represents only one year of data because of the change in survey methodology that occurred that year. Also, the data point in 2017 represents only one year of data because of a change in the skip pattern of the cholesterol-related questions on the survey.  Therefore, 2017 data may not be compared with previous years of data.  The question about having blood cholesterol checked is included in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey in only odd-numbered years.

Rates are age-adjusted to the US 2000 population. Percentages are age-adjusted to eliminate differences in crude rates that result from differences in the populations’ age distributions from year to year.

Note: New BRFSS weighting and survey methodologies began in 2011 and include data collected from cellular telephones. These rates are not comparable to rates from 2010 and earlier.

The target was developed as part of Healthy Connecticut 2020 and Live Healthy Connecticut, A Coordinated Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Plan.

These data are current as of December 2022.  New data will be made available in the Fall of 2024.

For more cardiovascular diseases statistics, visit www.ct.gov/dph/heartstrokedata.

Potential Partners:
Connecticut Department of Public Health; Connecticut Department of Agriculture; Connecticut Department of
Social Services; Department of Rehabilitation Services State Unit on Aging; Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection;
Office of the Healthcare Advocate; local public health agencies; health care providers including community health
centers, hospitals, nurses and physicians; health professional associations; health insurers; pharmaceutical
companies; other businesses and business associations; American Heart Association; other organizations and
coalitions focused on heart disease and stroke; community service providers that serve seniors and other at-risk
populations; philanthropic and research organizations that address heart disease and stroke; schools of public
health, allied health, nursing, and medicine; faith-based organizations; and others.

Million Hearts™ is a national initiative that involves multiple federal agencies and key private organizations to prevent 1 million cardiovascular events in the U.S. by 2022.

In addition, the Guide to Community Preventive Services Task Force made the following recommendations regarding cardiovascular disease prevention and control:
1. Clinical Decision Support Systems can increase the quality of cardiovascular care. Clinical Decision Support Systems are computer-based information systems designed to assist healthcare providers in implementing clinical guidelines at the point of care.
2. Reduced out-of-pocket costs for patients is associated with improvements in medication adherence, and blood pressure and cholesterol outcomes.
3. Team-based care led to better control of high blood pressure. Team-based care to improve blood pressure control is a health systems-level, organizational intervention that incorporates a multidisciplinary team to improve the quality of hypertension care for patients.

Assist health systems to establish policies for self-blood pressure monitoring in patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure

Identify and support food procurement policy changes to reduce the sodium content in food, with a focus on institutional food purchasers

Work with academic partners and community pharmacies to develop and implement a medication therapy management pilot for at risk patients with high blood pressure and diabetes to promote better control of these chronic illnesses

Collaborate with the Office of Genomics and the American Heart Association to offer a cardiovascular disease genomics symposium for health care professionals to raise awareness concerning the role genetics plays in heart disease

Promote the use of health information technology strategies and population health management tools to improve the quality of preventive care