title: Prevalence and Metrics Distribution of Ideal Cardiovascular Health: A Population-based, Cross-sectional Study in Rural China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced definitions of "ideal," "intermediate," and "poor" cardiovascular health (CVH) based on seven cardiovascular health metrics (smoking, body mass index, physical activity, diet score, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting glucose). This study used this construct to assess the prevalence and metric distribution of CVH in a rural population with traditional lifestyles and investigate the relationship of CVH with socio-demographic characteristics of participants.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 2012 to August 2013, a representative sample of 11,113 adults (mean age 53.8±10.6 years; 53.8% women) was enrolled from a rural population in Northeast China using a multi-stage, stratified random cluster-sampling scheme.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to the adjusted AHA criteria for CVH health metrics, there was 0.1% prevalence of ideal CVH (all seven health metrics at ideal levels), 11.7% of intermediate CVH (at least one health metric at intermediate level, but no poor health metrics), and 88.2% of poor CVH (at least one of seven health metrics at poor level). Women and young/middle-aged adults were more likely to have all of the ideal CVH metrics, behaviours, factors and CVH status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed extremely low (0.1%) prevalence of ideal CVH in the rural population of northeast China. The poor CVH status, particularly among men and older individuals, underscores the need for urgent action on modifiable risk factors, especially blood pressure and smoking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaofan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yintao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guozhe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: yxsun@mail.cmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yingxian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population
keywords: Cardiovascular disease risk factors; Epidemiology; Ideal cardiovascular health; Prevention