Characteristics of high risk people with cardiovascular disease in Chinese rural areas: clinical indictors, disease patterns and drug treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Current cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention is based on diagnosis and treatment of specific disease. Little is known for high risk people with CVD at the community level. In rural China, health records of all residents were established after the recent health reforms. This study aims to describe the characters of the rural population with high CVD risk regarding their clinical indicators, disease patterns, drug treatment and adherence.


RESULTS
17042 (87%) of all the 19500 rural residents in the two townships had valid health records in 2009. We employed a validated tool, the Asian Equation, to screen 8182 (48%) resident health records of those aged between 40-75 years in 2010. Those who were identified with a CVD risk of 20% or higher were selected for a face-to-face questionnaire survey regarding their diagnosed disease and drug treatment. 453 individuals were identified as high risk of CVD, with an average age of 53 years, 62% males, 50% smoking rate and average systolic blood pressure of 161 mmHg. 386 (85%) participated in the survey, while 294 (76%) were diagnosed with and 88 (23%) were suspects of CVD, hypertension, diabetes or hyperlipidaemia. 75 (19%) took drug regularly and 125 (32%) either stopped treatment or missed drugs. The most often used drugs were calcium channel blockers (20%). Only 2% used aspirins and 0.8% used statins. The median costs of drugs were 17 RMB (USD2.66) per month.


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of the high risk population in our setting of rural China had already been diagnosed with a CVD related disease, but very few took any drugs, and less still took highly effective drugs to prevent CVD. A holistic strategy focused on population with high risk CVD and based on the current China public health reform is suggested in the context of primary care.
School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Xiaolin
X
Wei
Guanyang
G
Zou
Jia
J
Yin
John
J
Walley
Biao
B
Zhou
Yunxian
Y
Yu
Linwei
L
Tian
Kun
K
Chen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012907:Smoking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires