Longjian Liu

Changes in stroke mortality rates for 1950 to 1997: a great slowdown of decline trend in Japan.

Background and Purpose— Stroke is the second leading cause of death in Japan. We sought to examine changes in stroke mortality rates by age, sex, and birth cohorts from 1950 to 1997. Methods— The numbers of deaths from stroke and the population by age and sex in subjects aged 55 to 79 years between 1950 and 1997 were obtained from national vital statistics. Poisson regression analyses for annual percentage changes were used to explore these trends. Results— Stroke mortality rates decreased since the mid-1960s for both men and women. Four periods of the decline are identified. In the first period (1950 to 1964), the age-adjusted annual percent changes averaged 0.9% for men (P <0.05) and −0.6% for women (P >0.05). In the second period (1965 to 1974), the annual change averaged −5.0% for men and −5.2% for women (both P <0.01). In the third period (1975 to 1989), the annual change averaged −8.6% for men and −8.7% for women (both P <0.01). In the fourth period (1990 to 1997), the annual change averaged −1.2% for men (P >0.05) and −3.0% for women (P <0.01). In the fourth period, the slowdown of the decline in stroke mortality was most evident in the older age groups of men. Conclusions— The findings suggested that along with an increasing aging population, the slowdown in the decline of stroke mortality rates, especially for men, is of considerable concern. Efforts to control stroke should be vigorously continued in the 2000s.

OBESITY, EMERGING RISK IN CHINA: TREND OF INCREASING PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HYPERTENSION and HYPERCHOLESTEROLAEMIA AMONG THE CHINESE

1. The aim of the present study was to investigate the trend of the prevalence of obesity in China and its association with hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.

Body Weight Change and Mortality in a Cohort of Elderly Patients Recently Discharged from the Hospital

Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic significance of weight change in frail elderly patients.

Resting heart rate in relation to blood pressure: Results from the World Health Organization—Cardiovascular Disease and Alimentary Comparison Study

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have reported that increased heart rate (HR) is associated with cardiovascular mortality. We aimed in assessing the hypothesis that HR may influence the outcomes of cardiovascular disease via a pathway related to increases in blood pressure (BP). METHODS Data from the World Health Organization-Cardiovascular Disease and Alimentary Comparison (CARDIAC) Study were analyzed to examine the association between resting HR and BP in a sample of 8541 adults aged 48-56 participating in the CARDIAC baseline surveys. RESULTS Increased heart rates were significantly correlated with both systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP) in men and women. The overall results (e.g. the pooled regression coefficients) suggest that an increase in each unit of heart rate (beat per minute) was associated with 0.27 mmHg increase in SBP, and 0.09 mmHg in DBP in the total study population sample, and 0.203 mmHg increase in SBP, and 0.252 mmHg increase in DBP in the sub-sample in which subjects with anti-hypertensive medication use were excluded in the analysis. CONCLUSION The study, by using a large population-based sample, indicates that increased resting heart rates are associated with increased blood pressure. The result supports the hypothesis that the influence of heart rates on cardiovascular mortality may be mediated by elevated blood pressure.

Taurine in 24-h Urine Samples Is Inversely Related to Cardiovascular Risks of Middle Aged Subjects in 50 Populations of the World

We previously showed that 24-h urinary taurine (Tau) excretion was inversely associated with mortality due to coronary heart diseases (CHD) and stroke. The aim of this study was to examine the association between 24-h urinary Tau/creatinine (Cre) ratio and cardiovascular disease risk factors, including body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), serum total cholesterol (TC) and prevalence of obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.