Objective To estimate stroke prevalence and comorbidity of risk factors and their control among permanent middle aged and elderly residents in rural areas of Liaoning province for providing evidences to effective interventions on prognosis of stroke patients.
Methods Using stratified random cluster sampling, we recruited 12 808 permanent residents aged ≥ 40 years in rural regions of 2 prefectures and 2 counties of Liaoning province and conducted questionnaire survey, physical examination and laboratory test to collect information on stroke and its risk factors among the residents between September 2017 and May 2018.
Results Of the 731 stroke patients identified among the 10 926 residents completing the survey, 86.7% had the comorbidity of hypertension and the prevalence rate of diabetes, dyslipidemia, and overweight/obesity were 24.5%, 37.2%, and 59.6% among the stroke patients, respectively. Compared to the male patients, the female patients had higher comorbidities of diabetes (28.3% vs. 20.8%, P = 0.015), dyslipidemia (46.7% vs. 28.0%, P < 0.001), and overweight/obesity (65.0% vs. 54.4%, P = 0.004); but there was no gender difference in hypertension prevalence in the stroke patients. Low control rate of hypertension (6.3%), diabetes (55.3%), and dyslipidemia (11.1%) were reported by the stroke patients. The reported control rate of dyslipidemia was significantly lower among the female patients than among the male patients (5.4% vs. 20.2%, P < 0.001).
Conclusion The comorbidity of stroke risk factors is relatively high but the control rate of these risk factors is low among the stoke patients in rural regions of Liaoning province, suggesting that specific and effective interventions on the risk factors should be developed for the population.
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