Objective  To analyze the prevalence of four chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke) and the impact of the diseases on family economic condition among rural residents in Yunnan province.

  Methods  Multistage stratified random sampling was used to select a representative sample of 3 909 rural families for a questionnaire survey between January and September 2015. Catastrophic health payments and medical impoverishment were used to assess the impact of the four diseases on household economic status.

  Results  Among the households surveyed, the overall incidence rate of catastrophic health payments and medical impoverishment was 30.5% and 25.2%; the incidence rate of catastrophic health payments related to hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke were 25.4%, 39.4%, 39.8%, and 47.0% and the rate of medical impoverishment were 19.8%, 35.7%, 34.0%, and 42.2%, respectively. Suffering from hypertension, diabetes, CHD, stroke, per capita income, and age were the risk factors of catastrophic health care payments and medical impoverishment. The results of multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that after adjusting for confounding factors, households with patients of hypertension, diabetes, CHD, and stroke had the 1.7, 3.8, 3.5, and 4.7 times of risk for catastrophic health payments and 2.2,1.9,1.6, and 2.1 times of risk for medical impoverishment compared to the households with no sufferers of the diseases. The households with elderly family members had a 1.9 times of risk for catastrophic health payments and a 1.5 times of risk for medical impoverishment compared to those with no elderly family members. Higher per capita income was a protective factor for catastrophic health payments and medical impoverishment.

  Conclusion  Hypertension, diabetes, CHD, and stroke had significant impacts on household economic condition among residents in rural Yunnan province. Effective measures are needed to improve the management of chronic diseases for reducing economic burden of the families with sufferers of the diseases.