Prevalence and associated factors of dyslipidemia in the adult Chinese population

Abstract

To determine the prevalence, associated factors, awareness and control of dyslipidemia in Chinese living in Greater Beijing, we measured the serum cholesterol concentration in 3251 Chinese adults (age: 45 to 89 years) as participants of the population-based Beijing Eye Study 2006. Additional information on treatment of dyslipidemia was obtained using a standard questionnaire. The mean concentrations of total, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides were 4.92±1.01 mmol/L, 1.61±0.36 mmol/L, 2.88±0.85 mmol/L, and 1.76±1.29 mmol/L, respectively. Prevalence of dyslipidemia was 56.1±0.9%%. Presence of dyslipidemia was significantly associated with increasing age (odds ratio (OR):1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 1.03), female gender (OR: 1.51; 95%CI: 1.25, 1.83), urban region (OR: 1.82; 95%CI: 1.30, 2.55), body mass index (OR: 1.13; 95%CI: 1.10, 1.15), income (OR: 1.11; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.21), blood glucose concentration (OR: 1.10; 95%CI: 1.05, 1.16), diastolic blood pressure (OR: 1.02; 95%CI: 1.01, 1.03), and smoking (OR: 1.23; 1.01, 1.51). Among those who had dyslipidemia, the proportion of subjects who were aware, treated and controlled was 50.9%, 23.8%, and 39.91%, respectively. The awareness rate was associated with urban region (P = 0.001; OR: 6.50), body mass index (P = 0.001; OR: 1.06), and income (P = 0.02; OR: 1.14). The data suggest that dyslipidemia may be present in about 56% of the population aged 45+ years in Greater Beijing. Factors likely associated with dyslipidemia were higher age, female gender, urban region, higher body mass index, higher income, higher blood concentration of glucose, higher diastolic blood pressure, and smoking. In the examined study population, treatment rate was 24% with about 60% of the treated subjects still having uncontrolled dyslipidemia.

Figure 1. Boxplots showing the distribution of total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the Beijing eye Study.