Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Letter
  • Published:

Education as an important risk factor for the prevalence of hypertension and elevated blood pressure in Chinese men and women

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 20, pages 898–900 (2006)Cite this article

We examined the effects of the level of formal education on the level of blood pressures, and on the prevalence of hypertension in a large Chinese population. Findings indicated that both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were inversely associated with the level of school education independent from all other risk factors (all P <0.0001).

Hypertension has been clearly identified as a primary risk factor of heart disease and stroke, the second and third leading cause of death in the China.1 The estimated number of hypertensives among Chinese adults has increased from 30 million in 1960s to 59 million by 1980s, and to 94 million by 1990s.2 Representative of a major public health crisis, the number of people with hypertension reached to 165 million in the 2002 National Health and Nutrition Survey.3 Better understanding the risk factors for hypertension may ultimately and directly assist in the prevention of hypertension and indirectly reduce the risk of stroke,4 cardiovascular disease and even death.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. He J, Gu D, Wu X, Reynolds K, Duan X, Yao C et al. Major causes of death among men and women in China. N Engl J Med 2005; 11: 1124–1134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gu D, Reynolds K, Wu X, Chen J, Duan X, Muntner P et al. Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in China. Hypertension 2002; 6: 920–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Report on Chronic Disease in China. Ministry of Health: Beijing, People's Republic of China, May 2006.

  4. He J, Klag MJ, Wu Z, Whelton PK . Stroke in the People's Republic of China. I. Geographic variations in incidence and risk factors. Stroke 1995; 26: 2222–2227.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ordunez P, Munoz JL, Espinosa-Brito A, Silva LC, Cooper RS . Ethnicity, education, and blood pressure in Cuba. Am J Epidemiol 2005; 1: 49–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Xu X, Niu T, Christiani DC, Weiss ST, Zhou Y, Chen C et al. Environmental and occupational determinants of blood pressure in rural communities in China. Ann Epidemiol 1997; 7: 95–106.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yu Z, Nissinen A, Vartiainen E, Song G, Guo Z, Zheng G et al. Associations between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors in an urban population in China. Bull World Health Organ 2000; 11: 1296–1305.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Yamori Y, Liu L, Mu L, Zhao H, Pen Y, Hu Z et al. Diet-related factors, educational levels and blood pressure in a Chinese population sample: findings from the Japan–China Cooperative Research Project. Hypertens Res – Clin Exp 2002; 25: 559–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang K, Li T, Xiang H . Study on the epidemiological characteristics of diabetes mellitus and IGT in China. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 1998; 5: 282–285.

    Google Scholar 

  10. SAS Software v9.0 2005. SAS Inc., Cary, NC.

  11. Colin Bell A, Adair LS, Popkin BM . Ethnic differences in the association between body mass index and hypertension. Am J Epidemiol 2002; 155: 346–353.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. He J, Klag MJ, Whelton PK, Chen JY, Qian MC, He GQ . Body mass and blood pressure in a lean population in southwestern China. Am J Epidemiol 1994; 139: 380–389.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University Medical Center, USA

    Y Wang

  2. Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, USA

    J Chen & K Wang

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Division of Medical Psychology, Duke University Medical Center, NC, USA

    C L Edwards

  4. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Duke University Medical Center, NC, USA

    C L Edwards

Authors
  1. Y Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C L Edwards
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, Y., Chen, J., Wang, K. et al. Education as an important risk factor for the prevalence of hypertension and elevated blood pressure in Chinese men and women. J Hum Hypertens 20, 898–900 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002086

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002086

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links