Background: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of prehypertension, hypertension, and associated risk factors between Mongolian and Han populations in Northeast China.
Methods: The study was conducted in 2004-2006, and used a multistage cluster sampling method to select a representative sample. A total of 9236 Mongolian people and 36,154 Han people in the same area, age 35 years or older, were examined. The survey on blood pressure and associated risk factors was carried out.
Results: Overall, the prevalence of prehypertension for Mongolian people was 43.6%, for Han people was 44.3%. The prevalence of hypertension in Mongolian was higher than in Han (42% vs 36.7%, p<0.05). The prevalence of hypertension was positively correlated with age, smoking, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), lipid disorder, diabetes, salt intake and family history of hypertension in Mongolian, whereas it was positively correlated with age, female, smoking, drinking, BMI, WC, lipid disorder, diabetes, salt intake and family history of hypertension in Han. The rates of awareness, treatment and control in Mongolian and Han were very low (29.7% vs 29.2%, 23.6% vs 23.5%, 0.7% vs 1.2%).
Conclusions: Hypertension and prehypertension were common in Mongolian and Han populations in Northeast China, and it were associated with many risk factors. The percentages of hypertensives who were aware, treated, and controlled were unacceptably low. These results place great emphasis on the urgent need for a public health program to improve the detection, prevention and treatment of hypertension in the rural area of Northeast of China.