Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggested that mortality from congenital heart diseases (CHD) is declining in the US. But we don't know what the CHD mortality trend is in China. What's more, we don't know whether the trends in rural and urban region follow different pattern or not in China, the largest developing country with rapid urbanization. This study aimed to determine recent changes in death caused by CHD in China and describe CHD mortality in rural and urban Chinese populations. METHODS: The data source was the China Ministry of Health 2003-2010 annual reports. Mortality was defined as death caused by CHD. Mortality rates for each year were calculated per 100,000 person-years. Poisson regression and descriptive analysis were conducted for overall trend and sub-group analysis was conducted by gender, age and urban/rural to understand potential disparities in mortality. RESULTS: From 2003-2010, the overall mortality rate increased from 141 per 100,000 person-years in 2003 to 229 in 2010, a 62.4% relative increase. This represents a region-sex adjusted annual increase of 9% (incidence rate ratio, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.10). The increase in CHD mortality was not uniformly observed across age groups, urban/rural and gender. The relative increases were 65.3%, 212.2% and 131.7% for age 1-10, 21-64 and 65 or older groups, respectively. Urban areas had a relative increase of 154.5% vs. 5.3% for rural areas. Female who lived in an urban environment had a relative increase of 313.5%. CONCLUSION: Different from US where the CHD mortality is reducing, our observation, based on Chinese Ministry of Health 2003-2010 annual reports, showed an obvious increasing trend of CHD mortality in China. What's more, increase in CHD mortality was not uniformly observed across age groups, urban/rural and gender. Such information is needed as a basis for working out and evaluating interventions and for the ongoing monitoring of CHD mortality and allocation of healthcare resources to properly treat CHD patients.
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