Prevalence of major chronic diseases and risk factors in the elderly

Objective To understand the prevalence of major chronic non-communicable diseases in the elderly, including hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease.

Methods A stratified multistage sampling survey was conducted among the elder residents in 4 communities in Luoding, and logistic regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors for coronary heart disease.

Results A total of 5 749 people were surveyed, including 2 675 males (46.53%) and 3 074 females (53.47%). The prevalence of coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, overweight and obesity were 5.44%, 28.58%, 9.50%, 24.77%, 23.64% and 6.11% respectively. The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that the increase of age (OR＝1.257, 95%CI: 1.153–1.361), BMI increase (OR＝1.159, 95%CI: 1.061–1.257), smoking (OR＝1.197, 95%CI: 1.084–1.310), drinking (OR＝1.088, 95%CI: 1.022–1.154), family history of coronary heart disease (OR＝1.385, 95%CI: 1.121–1.649), hypertension(OR＝1.098, 95%CI: 1.031–1.165), diabetes(OR＝1.501, 95%CI: 1.206–1.796), hyperlipidemia (OR＝1.210, 95%CI: 1.095–1.325) were the independent risk factors for coronary heart disease, while regular exercise (OR＝0.782, 95%CI: 0.611–0.953) was a protective factor.

Conclusion The prevalence of smoking, drinking, inactivity, hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia were high in the elderly surveyed. It is necessary to conduct active risk factor control for the purpose of reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the elderly.