Ruoling Chen
Wellbeing University of Wolverhampton, UK
Title: Incidence and predictors of stroke in older people: the Anhui cohort study, China
Biography
Biography: Ruoling Chen
Abstract
Background China has an increasing incidence rate of stroke due to its population aging, with the largest number of stroke patients in the world. However, incidence and predictors of stroke in older people has not been well studied. We determined incidence and predictors of stroke in older Chinese.
Methods In 2001-03 we interviewed a random sample of 3336 participants aged ≥ 60 years in Anhui, China, having characterized risk factors for stroke. Of them 2852 (89.2%) without stroke were followed-up until 2011, identifying stroke cases from 3 waves surveys interview and from causes of death.
Results During the 10-year follow-up, 211 incident stroke cases (12.8/1,000 person-years) were documented. After adjusted for age, sex and rural resident location, hazards ratio of stroke increased with older age (1.97, 95%CI 1.27-3.06 in participants ≥ 80 years compared to 65-69 years), rural living (1.57, 1.14-2.18), low education (in illiterate 1.95, 1.17-3.21 vs >=High secondary school), low occupational class (manual labourer 1.59, 1.01-2.49 vs official/teacher), hypertension (undetected hypertension 1.65, 1.16-2.34, untreated 2.24, 1.29-3.91, treated but uncontrolled 3.30, 2.28-4.78, controlled hypertension 1.33, 0.60-2.95 vs normotensives), diabetes (1.83,1.08-3.09), heart disease (1.50, 1.04-2.16), and reduced activities of daily living (ADL). However it was not significantly associated with male gender, obesity/overweight, alcohol drinking, smoking status, marital status and depression at baseline. Including all these factors in multivariate analysis, prediction of these factors for incident stroke was not substantially changed, except for diabetes and heart disease showing not significant.
Conclusions The incidence of stroke in older people in China was higher than their counterparts in the West. It is associated with older people’s low socioeconomic status, poor management of hypertension and low ADL. These need to be taken into account when implementing intervention programs.