Abstract:

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have become the leading contributor to death in China for the recent 20 years. Alarge number of epidemiologic studies of CVD were carried out in different regions of China. The study summarized the epidemiologic characteristics of CVD risk factors, distribution and the general tendency. The main results were as follows: Beijing area was different from western countries, the characteristics of CVD in Chinese population showed that both the incidence and mortality rate of coronary heart disease were low, and those of cerebrovascular disease were high. There were significant geographic variations in both CVDincidence and mortality rate, with higher rates in north and lower rates in south. In the past several decades, the increasing trend of CVD incidence was observed in Chinese population, while the CVD related mortality dereaded in most developed countries. Althrough total serum cholesterol (TC) and body-mass index (BMI) of Chinese population were lower than those of western countries, the current trends were increased significantly. Smoking rates in Chinese men ranked No. 1 in the WHO-WONICA study. The CVD epidemic in China was attributable to increased trends of main risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Comprehensive prevention and intervention for main cardiovascular risk factors could reduce the risk of CVD.