When you go into the reference of a pronoun, you must take logic as the most important. If ‘
whose’ indeed refers to cholesterol, then does cholesterol have families? Secondly, what is the verb for the singular subject cholesterol? Can it be the plural 'are'? Third, if ‘whose’ indeed refers to cholesterol, then how logical is it to say that cholesterol are likely to die at an age below that of their life expectancy. Isn’t it absurd?
Here the logic is that, the pronoun ‘
whose’ modifies citizens (with higher than average cholesterol – this is simple prepositional intermediary; so do not take it seriously) so the antecedence of
whose is indeed ok.
This is not to say that ‘
whose’ cannot modify an inanimate thing like cholesterol. It can certainly; consider this example.
Quote:
Experts believe that senior citizens with higher than average cholesterol whose effect is devastating on the them, are more likely to die at an age below that of their life expectancy.
Here ‘
whose’ modifies cholesterol and not citizens; logically senor citizens will not like to have effect devastating on themselves