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Cardiovascular diseases and risk factors among Chinese immigrants

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and major CVD risk factors, including diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity and smoking among Chinese immigrants by a systematic review of studies from various countries. PubMed and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were searched for studies of the prevalence of major CVDs and risk factors, and of CVD mortality among Chinese immigrants. The search identified 386 papers, 16 of which met the inclusion criteria for this review. In mainland China, there is a pattern of high stroke prevalence but low coronary heart disease (CHD) prevalence. Among Chinese immigrants, there is a much lower prevalence and mortality of stroke, but a higher prevalence and mortality of CHD, even though these are lower than the rates in immigrants of other ethnicities in the host country. The prevalence of CVD risk factors is also markedly different in immigrants. Compared with mainland Chinese, Chinese immigrants have a higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, higher serum cholesterol, poorer dietary patterns, and higher prevalence of obesity and smoking. Thus, the epidemiological pattern of CVD among Chinese immigrants changes compared with resident mainland Chinese. The less healthy environmental factor after immigration may be a major trigger in the adverse CVD status of Chinese immigrants. It is important for policy-makers to pay more attention to specific minority immigrant groups, and to implement more effective preventive measures to improve the health of immigrant populations.

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Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by the National Science and Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period of China (NO. 2011BAI08B01).

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  1. Department of Epidemiology, Beijing Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Vessel Diseases, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, NO. 2 An Zhen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, China

    Zhizhong Gong & Dong Zhao

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Correspondence to Dong Zhao.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with human and animals performed by any of the authors.

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Gong, Z., Zhao, D. Cardiovascular diseases and risk factors among Chinese immigrants. Intern Emerg Med 11, 307–318 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-015-1305-6

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