Cardiovascular disease in China

Cardiac disease in China is on the rise. Though incidences of heart disease have increased faster in the city than in the countryside, rural morbidity and mortality rates are now on the rise as well. Health statistics shows that the ischemic heart disease mortality rate in rural China has approximately doubled since 1988.

Unlike in developed countries, there is no preventive or primary health care system in place to stop the rise of cardiac disease. The real extent of heart disease in rural China is unknown because statistics are fraught with error and bias due to difficulties in ascertaining cause of death in places where 90% die without seeing a doctor. Therefore, there is a need to ascertain the real incidence and prevalence of heart disease and to develop adequate preventive and primary care in the Chinese countryside.

Stroke
Stroke is the largest cardiovascular killer in China at about 40% of total mortality in 2007 (approx. 280 per 100 000)