| Background: Hyperlipidemia is a common chronic disease among the elderlypopulation, now it has become a public health and social problem that can not beignored in China. With the rapid social economic development, people’s improvingliving standards and behavioral lifestyle changes, the average serum total cholesterolhas gradually elevated. The World Health Organization indicates that the elevatedcholesterol level is one of the five major leading contributors to mortalityworldwide.On the other hand, the increased cholesterol level plays a very importantrole in the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis and the causedcardiovascular accidents. Also, it is one of the independent risk factors for coronaryheart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Large-scale clinical trials alsoshowed that lowering serum cholesterol level can reduce the incidence ofcardiovascular events effectively.Hyperlipidemia not only seriously affect thepatient’s quality of life, but also cause increasing heavy disease burden to families andsociety. In China, a large number of the elderly hyperlipidemia patients do not receiveappropriate prevention, treatment and care services. Determining the prevalence andtreatment of hyperlipidemia among the elderly has a certain pratical significance andvalue in evaluating health services needs correctly, delaying the desease progressionand improving the current situation of health services.Objectives: Through the epidemiological studies of senile hyperlipidemia in sevenprovinces, we decide to determine the prevalence and treatment of hyperlipidemiaamong the elderly, analyze the relevant determinants and provide policyrecommendations to the health services of this group.Methods: Using typical sampling and cluster random sampling, we selected one urban and one rural community respectively as the research sites in Anhui, Shanghai,Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Guangdong, Hubei and Xingjiang. Then we carried outepidemiological studies of senile hyperlipidemia using the standard general health andrisk factors questionnaire in the above seven provinces. Respondents included in thestandard must meet three conditions:①l ived there for more than5years;②aged60years or over;③no serious deafness or aphasia. We diagnosed hyperlipidemia usingthe method of self-report, mainly relying on patient reports and hospital recordsscreening. And, we took the second level or above hospital medical records as a basisfor our diagnosis. All the data were imputed into computers by Eptdata4.0andanalyzed by SPSS18.0. The count data was conducted with composition ratio or rate.Also, we used χ2test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results:(1) Finally,7572effective survival questionnaires were obtained. Among allthe elderly,328reported that they have hyperlipidemia,7139did not have.And105did not provide the information of whether they have hyperlipidemia or not.Theprevalence of hyperlipidemia was4.39%.Among the328hyperlipidemia patients,118reported that they have taken lipid lowering treatment,210did not have.So thetreatment rate was about36.0%.(2) Compared the hyperlipidemia group with thenon-hyperlipidemia group,it showed that there were statistic significances(P<0.05orP<0.01)in age, marriage status, community type, occupation, educational level,smoking status, hobbies and interest, puzzle game, outdoor activities, collectiveactivities, personal anual income, family anual income, self-reported overall healthcondition, the situation where they get help timely, number of children, worry aboutchildren, friends communication situation, neighborhood communication situation,hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, BMI, stroke or paralysis, health status variation,recent bereavement, frightening experience. Multivariate logistic analysis showed thatfemale (OR=1.32), urban (OR=1.73),non-farmer (OR=1.85),high school educationlevel (OR=1.50),personal anual income≥20000(OR=1.53),help unavailable whenneeded (OR=1.86), worry about children (OR=1.41), hypertension (OR=2.80),heartdisease (OR=2.58), diabetes (OR=2.00), BMI≥30(OR=2.08),stroke or paralysis(OR=2.13), health status variation(OR=1.74) were the risk factors for theprevalence of hyperlipidemia.(3) Compared the untreated hyperlipidemia group withthe treated hyperlipidemia group, it showed that there were statistic significances(P<0.05or P<0.01) in age group, smoking status, drinking status, self-reportedoverall health condition, worry about children, hypertension, heart disease, diabetesand years of having hyperlipidemia. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that65-74age group(OR=1.86), worry about children (OR=2.23) were risk factors for theuntreatment of hyperlipidemia.Conclusions:(1) The prevalence of hyperlipidemia among the elderly in sevenprovinces in China was4.39%, the treatment rate was36.0%. The rising prevalenceand low treatment rate is the most prominent problem among Chinese hyperlipidemiapatients.(2) The main determinants for the prevalence of hyperlipidemia included sex,community type, occupation, educational level, economic income, the situation wherethey get help timely, worry about children, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, BMI,stroke or paralysis, negative life events.(3) The main influencing factors of untreatedhyperlipidemia included age group and worrying about children. And the relationshipbetween the level of untreated hyperlipidemia and the self-reported overall healthcondition, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, years of having hyperlipidemia stillneeds to be further explored.Suggestions:(1) Establish a correct concept of health and chronic disease preventionawareness, so as to cope with the challenges of population aging effectively.(2)Deeply carry out the health education of hyperlipidemia among the elderly to improvethe penetration rate of disease knowledge.(3) Build and perfect residents’ healthrecords, and comprehensive interventions should be carried out to high risk groupsand areas of hyperlipidemia.(4) Establish a good social support system to create agood psychological environment for the elderly. |
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