Hypertension is one of the major risk factor for cardiovascular disease worldwide. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in China. A multistage, stratified sampling method was used to obtain a representative sample of persons aged 18 years or older in the general population of China. Blood pressure (BP) was measured by sphygmomanometer 3 times at 5-minute intervals. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥ 140mm Hg, or diastolic BP ≥ 90mm Hg, or self-reported use of antihypertensive medications in the last 2 weeks irrespective of the BP. Altogether 50,171 subjects finished the survey across the entire country. The adjusted prevalence of hypertension was 29.6% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 28.9%–30.4%) and was higher among men than among women (31.2%, 95% CI = 30.1%–32.4%; vs. 28.0%, 95% CI = 27.0%–29.0%). The awareness, treatment among all hypertensive participants, control among all hypertensive participants, and control among treated hypertensive participants were 42.6%, 34.1%, 9.3%, and 27.4%, respectively. Multiple lifestyle factors were independently associated with presence of hypertension, including physical inactivity, habitual drinking, chronic use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, high body mass index, and central obesity. Hypertension is an important public health burden in China, and control of hypertension is still suboptimal. Several modifiable lifestyle activities were associated with hypertension and thus should be considered potential targets for intervention, with special attention to socioeconomically disadvantaged subpopulations in China.

Previous studies have indicated that the performance of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation equations vary according to the races of the target population. The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation has not been validated in the Chinese population including patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and healthy controls. A total of 977 adult persons (682 patients with CKD and 295 healthy volunteers) from nine renal institutes of university hospitals located in nine geographic regions of China were enrolled in the study. A diagnostic test study comparing the CKD-EPI two-level and four-level race equation, the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study equation and the modified MDRD equation for Chinese (the Chinese equation). The ^99mTc- diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid dual plasma clearance was used as a reference method for measuring GFR. The mean age of participants was 48.3 ± 16.0 years and 479 (49.0%) were male. The CKD-EPI two-level race equation and the Chinese equation performed better than the MDRD Study equation and CKD-EPI four-level race equation, with less bias (median difference between estimated GFR and reference GFR, 0.2 and 0.3 versus −2.4 and 3.0 mL/min/1.73 m²), improved precision (interquartile range of the difference, 20.5 and 20.8 versus 23.4 and 20.5 mL/min/1.73 m²) and greater accuracy (percentage of estimated GFR within 30% of reference GFR, 73.4 and 73.0% versus 69.8 and 70.1%). The CKD-EPI two-level race equation and the Chinese equation performed similarly in the Chinese population, and both performed better than the MDRD Study equation and the CKD-EPI four-level race equation.

Luxia Zhang and colleagues discuss the development of big data in Chinese healthcare and the opportunities for its use in medical research