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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death globally (1). As one of the leading risk factors for CVD, dyslipidemia refers to a group of lipoprotein metabolism disorders caused by genetic variation and (or) environmental factors. A previous study reported dyslipidemia in childhood as a trajectory phenomenon (2). The early lesions among dyslipidemia children are vascular endothelial injury and arterial fatty streaks, and further develop into fibrous plates, which may increase the risk of dyslipidemia and CVD among adults. Therefore, screening youth for dyslipidemia may have the potential to identify early affected individuals, reduce long-term cholesterol burden through intervention, and prevent or delay cardiovascular events in adulthood (3). This study used cross-sectional data from China Nutrition and Health Surveillance of Children and Lactating Mothers (CNHSCLM) from 2016–2017. The study aims to report the status of blood lipids among Chinese children and adolescents aged 6–17 years at a national level.
In 2016–2017, the CNHSCLM used 275 disease surveillance points across 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) and a multistage stratified cluster randomized sampling method to select a representative sample of children and adolescents aged 6–17 years. Similar recruitment methods to those used in the CNHSCLM have been reported elsewhere (4). Trained local personnel conducted the face-to-face questionnaire, physical measurements, and blood draw. Venous blood was collected from each subject to test four blood lipids, including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). After excluding incomplete data, 68,081 subjects who had been measured TC, TG, LDL-C, and HDL-C were included. The Ethics Committee for Research on Human Subjects of China CDC approved the study protocol (No. 201614). Interviewers obtain written informed consent before the start of the study.
High TC was defined as TC ≥5.18 mmol/L, high TG as TG ≥1.70 mmol/L, high LDL-C as LDL-C ≥3.37 mmol/L, low HDL-C as HDL-C <1.04 mmol/L, high non-HDL-C (non-HDL-C = TC − HDL-C) as non-HDL-C ≥3.75 mmol/L, and dyslipidemia was defined as any abnormality of the above indicators (5-6). A log transformation was applied to fit the normal distribution since some of the variables (TC, TG, and non-HDL-C) were non-normally distributed among participants. The post-stratification adjustment used China’s Sixth National Census in 2010 (7). Prevalence and means were weighted to represent the national levels. Differences between groups were tested using Rao-Scott Chi-square test and ANOVA test. Linear regression was used to test age trends in abnormal blood lipid prevalence and blood lipid levels. P<0.05 was deemed significant. All statistical analyses were conducted using SAS software (version 9.4; SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
The study included 68,081 children and adolescents aged 6–17 years; 34,017 males and 34,064 females; and 32,371 in urban areas and 35,710 in rural areas (Table 1). In 2016–2017, the overall dyslipidemia prevalence among Chinese children and adolescents was 19.43% [95% confidence interval (CI): 18.09%–19.96%], with 19.82% (95% CI: 19.07%–20.57%) in males and 18.89% (95% CI: 18.23%–19.73%) in females. There was an increasing age trend in dyslipidemia prevalence, from 15.83% for children aged 6–8 to 21.79% for adolescents aged 15–17 (Ptrend<0.0001). The urban group had a higher dyslipidemia prevalence than the rural group (20.60% vs. 18.39%, P<0.0001) (Table 1). Table 1 also shows that the prevalence of low HDL-C was the highest, and that high TG was the second highest.
Characteristics N* High TC High TG High LDL-C Low HDL-C High non-HDL-C Dyslipidemia Total 68,081 4.69 (4.37, 5.00) 4.74 (4.45, 5.03) 2.70 (2.47, 2.93) 11.63 (11.22, 12.04) 3.83 (3.54, 4.12) 19.43 (18.09, 19.96) Gender Male 34,017 4.21 (3.80, 4.62) 4.54 (4.13, 4.94) 2.71 (2.37, 3.04) 12.63 (12.03, 13.23) 3.66 (3.27, 4.05) 19.82 (19.07, 20.57) Female 34,064 5.23 (4.74, 5.72) 4.97 (4.57, 5.38) 2.69 (2.37, 3.01) 10.49 (9.94, 11.03) 4.02 (3.60, 4.45) 18.98 (18.23, 19.73) χ2 − 10.0324 2.2649 0.0054 26.9366 1.5140 2.4219 P − 0.0015 0.1323 0.9413 <0.0001 0.2185 0.1196 Age (years) 6–8 17,333 5.21 (4.63, 5.80) 2.54 (2.15, 2.92) 3.27 (2.79, 3.74) 8.31 (7.56, 9.05) 3.55 (3.07, 4.04) 15.83 (14.85, 16.81) 9–11 20,485 5.61 (4.89, 6.33) 5.49 (4.84, 6.14) 3.11 (2.56, 3.65) 8.63 (7.97, 9.30) 4.24 (3.60, 4.89) 18.33 (17.26, 19.40) 12–14 16,783 4.27 (3.60, 4.94) 6.38 (5.71, 7.06) 2.39 (1.87, 2.91) 13.12 (12.22, 14.02) 3.92 (3.27, 4.57) 21.11 (19.96, 22.25) 15–17 13,480 3.83 (3.29, 4.36) 4.62 (4.10, 5.13) 2.16 (1.82, 2.50) 15.49 (14.61, 16.36) 3.63 (3.12, 4.13) 21.79 (20.77, 22.82) ttrend − −4.45 5.45 −4.46 13.62 −0.02 8.59 Ptrend − <0.0001 <0.0001 0.0011 <0.0001 0.8221 <0.0001 Area Urban 32,371 6.25 (5.72, 6.77) 4.92 (4.50, 5.34) 3.67 (3.29, 4.06) 11.14 (10.57, 11.72) 5.09 (4.61, 5.58) 20.60 (19.81, 21.39) Rural 35,710 3.31 (2.94, 3.67) 4.58 (4.19, 4.97) 1.84 (1.57, 2.11) 12.06 (11.48, 12.64) 2.71 (2.39, 3.03) 18.39 (17.67, 19.11) χ2 − 83.5250 1.4218 58.3577 4.8080 67.7579 16.4322 P − <0.0001 0.2331 <0.0001 0.0283 <0.0001 <0.0001 Note: “–” indicates no χ2 or P values.
Abbreviation: CI=confidence interval; TC=total cholesterol; TG=triglyceride; LDL-C=low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL-C=high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
* N stands for the number of participants.Table 1. The prevalence of abnormal blood lipids among Chinese children and adolescents aged 6–17 years in 2016–2017. [% (95% CI)]
Overall, 11.63% of all children and adolescents had low HDL-C (Table 1). There was an increasing age trend in the prevalence of low HDL-C from 8.31% for children aged 6–8 to 15.49% for adolescents aged 15–17 (Ptrend<0.0001). Males had a higher prevalence of low HDL-C than females (12.63% vs. 10.49%, P<0.0001). The prevalence of low HDL-C was greater in rural than urban areas (12.06% vs. 11.14%, P=0.0283).
Overall, 4.74% of all children and adolescents had high TG (Table 1). There was an increasing age trend in the prevalence of high TG from 2.54% for children aged 6–8 to 4.62% for adolescents aged 15–17 (Ptrend<0.0001). No differences were seen between gender groups (4.54% vs. 4.97%, P=0.1323), and no differences were seen between urban and rural areas (4.92% vs. 4.58%, P=0.2331).
Similarly, with the prevalence of high TG, 4.69% of all children and adolescents had high TC (Table 1). There was a decreasing age trend in the prevalence of high TC from 5.21% for children aged 6–8 to 3.83% for adolescents aged 15–17 (Ptrend<0.0001). The females had a higher prevalence of high TC than males (5.23% vs. 4.21%, P=0.0015). The prevalence of high TC was greater in urban than rural areas (6.25% vs. 3.31%, P<0.0001).
From 2016–2017, the average LDL-C and HDL-C levels were 2.09 mmol/L and 1.42 mmol/L, respectively. The geometric average TC, TG and non-HDL-C levels were 1.57 mmol/L, 0.62 mmol/L and 1.22 mmol/L, respectively. There were differences in the average blood lipid levels between different groups. The females had higher average blood lipid levels than males (all P<0.0001); the average blood lipid levels in urban areas were higher than in rural areas (all P<0.0001) (Table 2). Table 2 also suggests an increasing age trend in average TG, while decreasing age trends in other average blood lipids (all Ptrend<0.0001).
Characteristics TC* TG* LDL-C HDL-C non-HDL-C* Total 1.57±0.24 0.62±0.21 2.09±0.6 1.42±0.34 1.22±0.28 Gender Male 1.56±0.23 0.61±0.22 2.05±0.60 1.41±0.35 1.20±0.27 Female 1.59±0.25 0.64±0.21 2.13±0.59 1.43±0.33 1.23±0.29 F 220.09 521.60 248.36 54.86 214.44 P <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 Age (years) 6–8 1.59±0.19 0.58±0.18 2.16±0.62 1.49±0.35 1.22±0.23 9–11 1.59±0.22 0.63±0.21 2.13±0.59 1.47±0.35 1.23±0.27 12–14 1.56±0.28 0.65±0.22 2.03±0.59 1.39±0.34 1.21±0.32 15–17 1.55±0.26 0.63±0.22 2.04±0.58 1.35±0.31 1.21±0.30 ttrend −11.42 14.59 −13.15 −26.72 −4.00 Ptrend <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 Area Urban 1.59±0.20 0.63±0.23 2.16±0.62 1.43±0.33 1.24±0.24 Rural 1.56±0.27 0.62±0.19 2.03±0.57 1.42±0.34 1.20±0.32 F 284.64 66.33 819.87 18.72 378.89 P <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001 Abbreviation: SD=standard deviation; TC=total cholesterol; TG=triglyceride; LDL-C=low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL-C=high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
* Log-transformed value.Table 2. The average blood lipids among Chinese children and adolescents aged 6–17 years in 2016–2017. (mmol/L, mean±SD)
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