Cardiovascular disease among college students in western Guangdong area

Objective This study is aimed to understand the epidemiological characteristics of cardiovascular disease among college students.Methods By using standardized questionnaire of Student Health Assessment from Chinese Ministry of Health,a random sample of 45 160 college students (school year 2013-2015) from three universities in the western Guangdong area were implemented.Cardiovascular disease screening,review and confirmation and cardiovascular classification were conducted.Results There were 553 cases of cardiovascular disease detected in the whole sample,which was 1.22% in prevalence.No significant gender difference was found (male:1.55%;female:1.02%) (x2 =24.830,P<0.05).The prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease among rural students (1.31%) was significantly higher than that of urban students (1.05%) (x2 =5.373,P<0.05).Among all the cases,160(0.35%) were classified as organic heart disease;192(0.43%) arrhyhmia and 201(0.45%) hypertension.Significant gender differences were found in arrhyhmia (x2 =9.503,P<0.05) and hypertension (x2 =151.969,P<0.05).Conclusion Cardiovascular disease is quite common and harmful to college students,especially for those from rural areas.Results suggest that efforts need to be made to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease among young people.Future educational intervention must address common misconceptions about cardiovascular disease risk.