Dyslipidemia common, undertreated among Chinese adults

Source: MedWire News

Over half of Chinese adults aged 45 years or older have dyslipidemia, a major study has found.

Worryingly, dyslipidemia in this population is also poorly controlled, with just 24% of eligible individuals being treated and 60% of treated patients failing to meet therapeutic targets.

The findings are reported in the open-access journal PLoS One by Jost Jonas (Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany) and colleagues.

Noting there are few data on the prevalence of dyslipidemia in China, Jonas and team analyzed data from the Beijing Eye Study, a population-based study performed in seven rural and urban communities in Greater Beijing.

A total of 3251 adults aged 45-89 years were included in the analysis.

Mean concentrations of total, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides were 4.92 mmol/l, 1.61 mmol/l, 2.88 mmol/l, and 1.76 mmol/l, respectively.

The overall prevalence of dyslipidemia was 56.1%.

In multivariate analysis, presence of dyslipidemia was significantly associated with increasing age, female gender, urban location, body mass index, income, blood glucose concentration, diastolic blood pressure, and smoking.

Among those with dyslipidemia, just 50.9% were aware of their diagnosis; the awareness rate was significantly associated with urban region, body mass index, and income.

In the dyslipidemic subset, just 23.8% were being treated with lipid-lowering therapy, of whom just 39.9% were being treated to target. In line with this, 60.1% of those receiving treatment for dyslipidemia still had abnormally high levels of one or more lipids.

"[Our findings] might explain the recent rapid increase in coronary heart disease mortality in China," write Jonas and co-authors.

"Without a national emphasis on prevention treatment and control of dyslipidemia, the societal burden of cardiovascular diseases in China will continue to rise in the near future."