Adverse trends of cardiovascular risk factors among low risk populations (1983-1994) - a cohort study of workers and farmers in Guangzhou, China

Table 1 Baseline characteristics by gender and occupation among cohort populations in Guangzhou, China, 1983-1984

	Males				Females
	Workers		Farmers		Workers		Farmers
	Mean or %	SD	Mean or %	SD	Mean or %	SD	Mean or %	SD
Age (years)	42.1	8.7	42.4	8.9	41.1	8.2	41.7	9.6
Education (%)			*				*
Never school	2.1		8.3		11.5		57.4
Primary school	36.8		75.3		34.3		40.4
Middle school	35.7		14.1		25.0		1.8
High school or above	25.4		2.3		29.2		0.5
Current smoker (%)	71.7		81.8*		2.8		5.3*
Cigarettes per day
Total	12.7	11.8	18.6*	14.8	0.2	1.8	0.5*	2.9
Current smoker	17.7	10.3	22.7*	13.2	8.4	7.2	9.7	8.2
Current alcohol drinker (%)	24.9		61.0*		1.8		7.7*
Alcohol intake (g/per day)
Total	10.6	28.9	51.8*	74.0	0.4	4.5	1.3*	7.3
Drinker	42.4	44.8	84.9*	78.5	20.4	27.4	17.3	20.5
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	115.0	14.8	115.5	14.0	114.4	17.2	109.8*	13.9
Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	74.6	9.8	72.3*	9.5	74.0	10.5	68.8*	9.1
Hypertension (%)	9.7		7.4*		10.5		3.8*
Taking antihypertensive medication (%)
Total	1.3		0.3*		1.3		0.3*
Hypertensive	13.8		3.6*		12.1		6.7
Body mass index (kg/m²)	20.5	2.4	19.9*	1.9	21.4	3.0	19.7*	2.0
Weight category (%)			*				*
Normal	95.3		99.1		88.3		98.9
Overweight	4.7		0.9		10.8		1.0
Obesity	0.0		0.1		1.0		0.1
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	181.9	32.0	158.6*	30.3	187.2	33.2	155.4*	28.7
Low density cholesterol (mg/dl)	112.2	28.4	94.0*	25.3	114.5	29.2	92.4*	25.0
High density cholesterol (mg/dl)	49.6	12.1	49.1	12.2	53.4	12.4	47.9*	10.4
Triglycerides (mg/dl)	104.9	86.4	80.8*	77.6	100.3	90.5	76.1*	44.0

ISSN: 1471-2458