The expanding burden of cardiometabolic risk in China: the China Health and Nutrition Survey

Abstract

Background China faces a major increase in cardiovascular disease, yet there is limited population-based data on risk factors, particularly in children. Methods and Results Fasting blood samples, anthropometry and blood pressure were collected on 9,244 children and adults aged ≥7 years in late 2009 as part of the national China Health and Nutrition Survey. Prevalent overweight, elevated blood pressure, and cardiometabolic risk factors: glucose, HbA1c, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C and LDL-C), and C-reactive protein (CRP) are presented. Results 11% of Chinese children and 30% of Chinese adults are overweight. Rates of diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and inflammation are high and increased with age and were associated with urbanization. Approximately 42% of children have at least one of the following: pre-diabetes or diabetes, hypertension, high TC, LDL-C, TG, and CRP and low HDL-C, as do 70% males and 60% females aged 18–40 years and >86% of males and females ≥40 years. Conclusions HbA1c findings suggest that as many as 29.4 million Chinese children and 415.8 million Chinese adults may be prediabetic or diabetic. The high prevalence in less urban areas and across all income levels suggests that cardiometabolic risk is pervasive across rural and urban China.

Do older Chinese people’s diets meet the Chinese Food Pagoda guidelines? Results from the China Health and Nutrition Survey 2009

“…Physical activity was identified into two categories (yes/no), with the question 'Do you participate in this activity (includes: martial arts, gymnastics, dancing, acrobatics, running, swimming, soccer, basketball, tennis, badminton, volleyball and others)?' Urbanicity was defined by a multidimensional twelve-component urbanization index, which has been explained in previous studies (30,31) . Tertiles of the urbanization index were used to define low, medium and high urbanicity for the present study.…”

The Association of Duration of Residence in the United States with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among South Asian Immigrants

“…The authors speculated that the observed increase in CVD risk observed in South Asian countries could be attributed to the effects of increasing urbanization on CVD risk factors [5]. The nutritional consequences of migrating from a low-income country to the US are similar to the nutritional consequences of migrating from a rural lifestyle to an urban lifestyle and similar to the effects of ''modernization'' in developing countries [19][20][21]. These consequences include increases reported for various nutrition-related CVD risk factors, including increased intake of saturated fats (i.e., animal foods), refined carbohydrates, sodium and decreased intake of dietary fiber and potassium [5].…”

Long work hours and health in China

“…To shed light on the association between long work hours and cardiometabolic risks in general (diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and inflammation), we analyze biomarker data from the CHNS, which, however, are only available for 2009 and for quite a small sample. Specifically, we create binary variables for prediabetes, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, and inflammation, and then, following Yan et al (2012) and Ning and Bloomgarden (2013), define the prediabetes dummy as a dichotomous variable equal to 1 if total glucose is ≥100 mg/dL and <126 mg/dL, and 0 otherwise. Likewise, the diabetes dummy equals 1 if total glucose is ≥126 mg/dL, dyslipidaemia equals 1 if total cholesterol is ≥200 mg/dL, and the inflammation dummy equals 1 if the high sensitivity C-reactive protein exceeds 2 mg/dL.…”