Rural populations in the world suffer from problems of access to care, education, and income disparities. Hypertension is now becoming another major risk associated with rural life.

Researchers led by Zhaoqing Sun of the Department of Cardiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, say the rise in hypertension may represent the internalized stresses of adapting to a rapidly changing economic and cultural landscape in China -  almost 25% of the incidence over a 5-year period found in a large population sample from a single rural region, the Liaoning province.

Cardiovascular disease, including both stroke and heart disease, is now the leading cause of death among Chinese adults. Hypertension is an important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and total mortality in the Chinese population, the researchers said in their findings published in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Because more than one-half of the Chinese population lives in rural regions, shifts in mortality that are due to cardiovascular disease have enormous public health and economic consequences.

Studies published in the 1980s and 1990s suggested that the prevalence and incidence of hypertension in rural China were very low. During the past 2 decades, however, China in general, and rural China in particular, has been undergoing rapid social changes. Rural residents periodically commute to urban regions, where they acquire urban and westernized lifestyles and dietary habits. These changes are occurring all over China, but they are particularly pronounced in the northeast and west, where agricultural production is not high and growth of urban centers is accelerating.