Background: China has made large efforts to reduce stroke prevalence. We aimed to systematically examine the prevalence of stroke in China over the past two decades.
Methods: Databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, VIP, and PubMed, were systematically searched for studies published in English or Chinese that reported stroke prevalence in China during 2000-2017. Meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the pooled stroke prevalence and the variations in stroke prevalence subgroups stratified by age, gender, time period, and region.
Results: In total, 96 papers met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that the overall estimated national prevalence was 5.1% (5.0-5.3%) with large variations across regions: 3.1% (2.5-3.6%) in south China, 3.4% (3.0-3.8%) in southwest China, 3.6% (3.3-3.8%) in east China, 5.0% (4.7-5.4%) in central China, 5.8% (4.6-7.1%) in northwest China, 6.0% (5.0-7.0%) in northeast China, and 8.0% (7.4-8.5%) in north China. Men had a higher prevalence than women [7.3% (6.9-7.7%) vs. 5.6% (5.2-6.0%)]. Stroke prevalence increased with age, was 1.2% (1.0-1.3%), 2.9% (2.6-3.2%), 5.9% (5.2-6.5%), and 8.7% (8.0-9.5%) in the 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and ≥70 years old groups, respectively.
Conclusions: Men, people being older, or living in northern China had higher stroke prevalence. More vigorous efforts are needed in China to prevent stroke.
Keywords: China; Stroke; meta-analysis; trends.
2020 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.