Cardiovascular health status in Chinese Cardiologists: China Cardiologist Heart Survey II

Abstract

Background and purpose: Cardiologists represent a subset of the population with the highest degree of awareness to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and thus should have low exposure to modifiable risks and low CVD prevalence. However, the status of cardiovascular health in Chinese cardiologists remains unknown. Methods: China Cardiologist Heart Survey II is a nation-wide cross-sectional survey on licensed cardiologists in Chinese mainland. It was conducted between August 2020 and November 2021. An online questionnaire was used to acquire demographic and lifestyle information, cardiovascular risk factors, CVD status, and medications. Crude prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, organ damage, and CVD were calculated and compared between sexes and between sub-specialties. Age-weighted prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors were compared to that in the general Chinese population in the literature. Results: The final analysis included a total of 15,827 cardiologists at the age of 25 to 60 years from 31 provinces. The median age was 38 years and 8650 (54.7%) were men. The most common cardiovascular risk factor was family history of premature CVD (20.4%), followed by hypertension (12.4%), hyperlipidemia (10.6%), overweight/obesity (8.3%), smoking (7.3%), and diabetes (2.4%). The most common sub-clinical organ damages included carotid plaque (3.4%) and microalbuminuria (1.2%). The rate of confirmed coronary artery disease was 0.4%. The rate of arrhythmia was 3.1%. The rate of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome was 2.2%. The rate of cardiovascular risk factors and organ damage was higher in men versus in women, and higher in interventional versus non-interventional cardiologists. In comparison to the data reported for the general population in China, cardiologists had lower age-weighted prevalence of hypertension (15.2% vs. 23.2%), diabetes (3.1% vs. 10.9%), hyperlipidemia (12.3% vs. 40.4%), obesity (2.1% vs. 11.9%), and smoking (7.7% vs. 27.7%). Conclusions: In comparison to the general public, cardiologists in Chinese mainland had much lower age-weighted prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, but there is substantial room for further improvement, particularly in male and interventional cardiologists.