Cardiometabolic comorbidities and epidemiological features among rural Chinese elderly people

China had already entered the aging society and taken up the largest number of elderly among the world.

We intend to estimate cardiometabolic comorbidities situation among elderly coming from rural China.

We conducted a survey during 2012 to 2013 which enrolled 1744 elderly from rural Northeast China. Data regarding the demographic and lifestyle characteristics and the blood biochemical indexes of these participants were collected by well-trained personnel.

Data in this study shows that the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, stroke and hyperuricemia was 74.8%, 14.9%, 67.4%, 39.9%, 18.9% and 13.1%, respectively. Female had significantly higher prevalence of dyslipidemia (79.3% vs. 55.9%), diabetes (18.4% vs. 11.4%) and obesity (42.1% vs. 37.7%) than male. Elder subjects (> 75 years) had higher prevalence of hypertension (80.4% vs. 73.4%) than younger ones (65-75 years) while obesity was more prevalent among younger subjects (41.4% vs. 34.1%). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that moderate physical activity and current smoking show beneficial effect on cardiometabolic comorbidities. Higher family income (> 20, 000 CNY/year) was risk factor of diabetes and obesity only while sleep duration between 7 and 8 h/day and married status were risk factors for hypertension only. Current drinking increases the risk of hypertension and dyslipidemia but as protective factor for obesity and stroke.

The prevalence of cardiometabolic comorbidities among was high among rural elderly from China. Physical activity, current smoking and drinking, family income, sleep duration and married status were associated with cardiometabolic comorbidities. Metabolic screen was recommended in the older subjects in rural China.