Ischaemic heart disease in China: the time to address rising mortality rates.

Abstract

This editorial refers to ‘Increasing mortality from ischemic heart disease in China from 2004-2010: disproportionate rise in rural areas and elderly subjects’, by X. Zhang et al. , on page 47 . Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) has become increasingly common in China and has overtaken haemorrhagic stroke in recent years as the country’s leading cause of death.1 Models forecast that the incidence of coronary heart disease in China will rise to over 2.5 million events per year by 2030, which represents a 50% increase over the 2010 incidence.2 Also, in contrast to USA and other developed countries, the mortality rate associated with IHD in China is increasing.3 Efforts to reduce the burden of IHD in China must start with a detailed understanding of the underlying epidemiologic trends. China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention maintains a disease surveillance system that collects information about causes of death at a nationally representative sample of points.4 In this issue, Zhang et al ., using data from this surveillance system, describe national trends in the cause-specific mortality rate for IHD in China between 2004 and 2010. During the study period, the crude IHD mortality rate rose from 70.3 per 100 000 in 2004 to 92.9 per 100 000 in 2010. These data imply an annualized increase in IHD mortality of 4.8%. Prior reports also using data from this surveillance system have indicated that the crude IHD mortality rate grew at approximately 3% between 1990 and 2013,5 thus the analysis by Zhang et al . indicates that IHD mortality rates may be increasing. Comparable trends … [↵][1]* Corresponding author. Tel: +1-617-732-6660, Fax: (617) 264-6346, E-mail: nsdowning{at}partners.org [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1