The relationships of plasma total cholesterol (total-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) to a variety of personal attributes were investigated cross-sectionally in a random sample of approximately 1360 elderly Japanese men, aged 60-81 years, in Hawaii. In multivariate analyses, total-C was positively related to hematocrit (p less than 0.01); LDL-C was positively related to hematocrit (p less than 0.0001), and inversely related to alcohol consumption (p less than 0.0001); HDL-C was positively related to alcohol consumption (p less than 0.0001) and physical activity index (p less than 0.05), and inversely related to body mass index (p less than 0.0001) and antihypertensive medication (p less than 0.05); and LogTG was positively related to body mass index (p less than 0.0001), alcohol consumption (p less than 0.0001), antihypertensive medication (p less than 0.0001), and diastolic blood pressure (p less than 0.01), and inversely related to physical activity index (p less than 0.01). Body mass index and alcohol consumption were the most important correlates of plasma lipids and lipoproteins. Several dietary variables were significantly related to each lipid or lipoprotein fraction after controlling for nondietary variables, but their independent contributions were generally quite modest.