title: Co-variations and clustering of chronic disease behavioral risk factors in China: China Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Surveillance, 2007.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic diseases have become the leading causes of mortality in China and related behavioral risk factors (BRFs) changed dramatically in past decades. We aimed to examine the prevalence, co-variations, clustering and the independent correlates of five BRFs at the national level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We used data from the 2007 China Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Surveillance, in which multistage clustering sampling was adopted to collect a nationally representative sample of 49,247 Chinese aged 15 to 69 years. We estimated the prevalence and clustering (mean number of BRFs) of five BRFs: tobacco use, excessive alcohol drinking, insufficient intake of vegetable and fruit, physical inactivity, and overweight or obesity. We conducted binary logistic regression models to examine the co-variations among five BRFs with adjustment of demographic and socioeconomic factors, chronic conditions and other BRFs. Ordinal logistic regression was constructed to investigate the independent associations between each covariate and the clustering of BRFs within individuals. Overall, 57.0% of Chinese population had at least two BRFs and the mean number of BRFs is 1.80 (95% confidence interval: 1.78-1.83). Eight of the ten pairs of bivariate associations between the five BRFs were found statistically significant. Chinese with older age, being a male, living in rural areas, having lower education level and lower yearly household income experienced increased likelihood of having more BRFs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Current BRFs place the majority of Chinese aged 15 to 69 years at risk for the future development of chronic disease, which calls for urgent public health programs to reduce these risk factors. Prominent correlations between BRFs imply that a combined package of interventions targeting multiple BRFs might be appropriate. These interventions should target elder population, men, and rural residents, especially those with lower SES.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Chronic and Non-communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China. alexleeliyichong@gmail.com
authors.forename: Yichong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult