An editorial published in the latest issue of the European Heart Journal, written by Tommy L.S. Visscher from The Institute for Health Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, discussed the findings of the recent China National Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders study, and it does not make comfortable reading.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is now the most prevalent disease to affect the Chinese population. This study describes how 30% of the population sample had ≥3 CV risk factors, and as such prevention strategies must now be employed to help manage the rapid increase in CVD prevalence in the Chinese population, or face an ‘epidemiological transition’ that will develop faster than anything known in the west.
The western world has been facing a growing CVD epidemic, and it is evident that the Chinese population is beginning to follow suit.
The increase in CV risk factors in the Chinese population – smoking, obesity and hypertension, to name but a few – correlate to the modernization of Chinese society, and is similar to the epidemiological transition that western societies have experienced since the Industrial Revolution.
Although western countries have various CVD prevention strategies and programmes, these must be applied in the context of Chinese culture in order to meet the needs of this population. Furthermore, Visscher notes that changes in western governments towards a more right-wing school of thought may negatively impact on current global CVD prevention strategies.
Ultimately, unless this issue is dealt with, the increase in CVD risk factors in the Chinese population will result in a major epidemic that will have implications and consequences that reach far beyond China’s borders.