Assessment of cardiovascular disease risk in Northern China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a life-threatening chronic illness. CVD risk may be influenced by environment and lifestyle. People in northern China usually consume high-fat, high-salt diets and alcohol and live in a cold climate over long periods. However, there are limited studies on CVD risk among people in northern China. In the present study, we sought to estimate the CVD risk profile among residents of northern China. Using the Programme of Screening and Intervention Subjects with High Risk Cardiovascular Diseases, we collected data from residents in six cities from September 2015 to June 2017. In total, 56,716 participants aged 40 years and above were finally included in the CVD risk assessment. To assess the 10-year risk of CVD among participants, we used World Health Organisation/International Society of Hypertension risk prediction charts. Among the study participants, 22.7% had a high 10-year risk of CVD. We identified differences in the 10-year CVD risk according to sex, socioeconomic status, and marital status. We conclude that individuals with high socioeconomic status should be encouraged to change their lifestyle habits, and greater medical resources should be invested for individuals residing in rural areas and those with low education levels.

Keywords:

• Cardiovascular disease
• risk assessment
• cross-sectional study

Ethical approval

All enrolled participants provided their written informed consent. The Central Ethics Committee of the China National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease approved this project.

Acknowledgement

The data in this article were obtained from the Programme of Screening and Intervention Subjects with High Risk Cardiovascular Diseases and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Inner Mongolia. The authors thank Analisa Avila, ELS, of Liwen Bianji, Edanz Group China, for her English language recommendations.

Author contributions

Hao Zhu performed the data analyses and wrote the manuscript.

Yunfeng Xi organised and collected data.

Wenrui Wang and Xingguang Zhang contributed to the conception of the study.

Han Bao, Liwei Niu, Xiaoqian Xu, Tao Yan, and Ning Cao contributed to survey preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Finance of China and National Health and Family Planning Commission of China; the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Health and Family Planning Commission Research Project under Grant number [201701041]; and the Inner Mongolia Medical University talent training and innovation team building project.