. Subjects
A total of 3490 subjects aged 65 years or over were randomly
recruited from the community (n=2132) and retirement villages (n=
1358) by the Hunter Valley Research Foundation. Subjects from the
community residing in the Federal Electoral Divisions of Dobell,
Robertson and Shortland area were randomly selected from extracts of
the Commonwealth Electoral Roll prepared by the Australian Electoral
Commission. Subjects from retirement villages were randomly
selected from a list of 12 participating retirement villages in the
same area. Potential subjects were interviewed via telephone by a
trained interviewer to assess eligibility. A total of 3094 (88.7%)
individuals were successfully contacted. Of these, 212 were found to
be ineligible for the study because they were less than 65 years of age,
required an interpreter, had poor health which hindered study
participation, were cognitively impaired and/or unable to provide
informed consent, and/or were residing in a communal living setting
other than a retirement village. Eligibility was not assessed for a
further 1166 subjects due to refusal, language and/or other communicative
barriers. The remaining 1716 subjects were classified as
eligible to participate. Of these, 621 respondents refused participation
and 1095 scheduled an initial appointment. Approximately one
quarter (n=264) of those who scheduled an initial appointment did
not participate because they cancelled their appointment (n=256),
withdrew (n=3) or were excluded (n=5) from the study. In total, 831
eligible respondents took part in the RHLS. Blood samples were
obtained from a subset of individuals (n=649) who were interviewed,
attended a clinic and consented to blood collection. Erythrocyte
samples for the analyses of membrane fatty acid composition were
available for 620 participants. Participants who were taking lipidlowering
medications (n=334) and/or who reported liver disease