Prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factor clustering in Chinese adults

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is now the most prevalent and debilitating disease affecting the Chinese population, we aim to provide the latest nationwide estimates on the prevalence of main CVD risk factors. Using a complex, multistage, probability sampling design, a cross-sectional study was performed in a nationally representative sample of 17,708 adults aged 45 years and older from 28 provinces in 2011–2012. Overall, the age-standardized prevalence of subjects having 1, 2, 3, or ≥ 4 of the 5 risk factors was 30.5%, 29.8%, 19.7%, and 7.4%, respectively. The prevalence of being dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, current smoking, and overweight or obese was 62.6%, 39.9%, 18.7%, 27.5%, and 32.6%, respectively. Clustering of CVD risk factors was a high health burden in the Chinese middle aged and elderly population. These results underscore the need for strategies aimed at the prevention, detection, and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors to reduce morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease.