Prevalence and clustering of cardiovascular risk factors among healthy adults in a Chinese population: the MJ Health Screening Center Study in Taiwan.
OBJECTIVE
To gain insight into the prevalence and clustering of multiple cardiovascular risk factors in a healthy Chinese adult population in Taiwan.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1996.


METHODS
A total of 46,603 subjects (23,485 men and 23,118 women) who were aged 20--59 y and attended a private health screening center for health examination of their own volition.


METHODS
Multiple cardiovascular risk factors including cigarette smoking, overweight (23 kg/m(2)< or =body mass index (BMI)<25 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI> or =25 kg/m(2)), lipid disorder (a ratio of total cholesterol level to the level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol>5 or use of lipid-lowering drugs), hypertension (systolic blood pressure> or =140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure> or =90 mmHg or use of anti-hypertensive medications), and diabetes mellitus (fasting serum plasma glucose level> or =126 mg/dl or use of anti-diabetic medications) were determined.


RESULTS
In comparison to women, men had a higher prevalence of current smoking (42.1 vs 5.6%), overweight (25.1 vs 17.1%) and obesity (33.1 vs 21.5%), lipid disorder (45.1 vs 19.6%), hypertension (17.4 vs 13.2%), as well as diabetes mellitus (4.1 vs 3.4%). The prevalence of men or women having two or more of the cardiovascular risk factors of interest was 54.3 and 21.7%, respectively. With advancing age, the prevalence of risk factors became greater for both genders. More importantly, the clustering of risk factors increased monotonically with increasing BMI levels for men and women.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence and clustering of cardiovascular risk factors are commonplace in this healthy Chinese adult population. Considering the significant association between clustering of risk factors under study and BMI levels, this study gives an indication that population-based multifactorial interventions may work out favorably for specific groups.
Wu
D M
DM
School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Pai
L
L
Chu
N F
NF
Sung
P K
PK
Lee
M S
MS
Tsai
J T
JT
Hsu
L L
LL
Lee
M C
MC
Sun
C A
CA
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000150:complications*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology