Cardiovascular disease and death varied across Chinese provinces
Major cardiovascular disease rates varied 6.1-fold across 12 provinces, from 2.78 per 1,000 person-years in Jiangxi to 17.05 in Qinghai over a median 11.9 years.
Limit: Air pollution differed across regions and could confound comparisons adjusted only for age and sex
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational cohort study followed 43,105 adults aged 35 to 70 without prior cardiovascular disease—conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels—across 115 communities in 12 Chinese provinces. Their mean age was 50.6 years, and 58.4% were female. Median follow-up was 11.9 years.
Major cardiovascular event rates, adjusted for age and sex, ranged from 2.78 per 1,000 person-years in Jiangxi to 17.05 in Qinghai. Similarly adjusted death rates varied 4.5-fold, from 2.65 per 1,000 person-years in Shandong to 12.06 in Xinjiang. Person-years combine participant numbers and follow-up time. Individual risk factors accounted for 27.7% of provincial variation in time until a cardiovascular event; community factors did not reduce this variation. For time until death, individual factors accounted for 9.0% of provincial variation and community factors for 26.8%.
Why it matters
The study examined whether geographic differences in cardiovascular disease and death were more closely linked to personal health risks or community conditions. That question matters for efforts to support healthy aging.
Caveats
This observational analysis cannot establish whether individual or community factors caused the regional differences. It covered adults aged 35 to 70 without prior cardiovascular disease in 12 Chinese provinces, so the findings may not apply to other ages, people with existing cardiovascular disease or populations outside China.
- Ambient air pollution
- Community affluence
- Urban/rural location
- Cardiovascular disease
- Heart failure
- Humans
