Current Hypertension Reports

, Volume 14, Issue 5, pp 410–415 | Cite as

Characteristics of Hypertension in the Chinese Population

Antihypertensive Therapy: Patient Selection and Special Problems (K Kario and H Rakugi, Section Editors)
First Online:

Abstract

In China, the prevalence of hypertension is currently 18.8 %, and a major risk factor for hypertension is unbalanced dietary sodium and potassium intakes. High dietary sodium intake may change the circadian rhythm of 24-h blood pressure, which is characterized by a higher nighttime blood pressure. The prevalence of isolated nighttime hypertension, defined as a nighttime blood pressure of at least 120 mm Hg systolic or 70 mm Hg diastolic and a daytime systolic/diastolic blood pressure less than 135/85 mm Hg, is higher in Chinese than in Europeans. The complications of hypertension are also different across ethnicities, being mainly stroke instead of myocardial infarction in Chinese. Lowering of blood pressure provides more protection against stroke than against myocardial infarction, and calcium channel blockers provide more protection against stroke than do other classes of antihypertensive drugs. Current Chinese hypertension guidelines recommend calcium channel blockers as the most suitable class of drugs of the five classes of antihypertensive drugs.

Keywords

Hypertension Characteristics Chinese Dietary sodium Potassium Blood pressure Nocturnal blood pressure Stroke Antihypertensive drug therapy Calcium channel blockers 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors were financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 30871360, 30871081, and 81170245), the Ministry of Science and Technology [2006BAI01A03 and a grant for China–European Union collaborations (1012)], the Ministry of Education, Beijing, China (NCET-09-0544), the Shanghai Commission of Science and Technology (grant 07JC14047, the “Rising Star” program 06QA14043, and 11QH1402000), the Shanghai Commission of Education (grant 07ZZ32 and the “Dawn” project 08SG20), the Shanghai Bureau of Health (XBR2011004), Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine (a Distinguished Young Investigators grant to Yan Li), and the European Union (grants LSHM-CT-2006-037093 and HEALTH-F4-2007-201550).

Disclosure

J.-G. Wang received compensation for consulting and lectures from A&D, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Omron, Pfizer, Sankyo, Sanofi, Servier, and Takeda; Y. Li: none.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Centre for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials, The Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin HospitalShanghai Jiaotong University School of MedicineShanghaiChina

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