Prevention of Stroke in Urban China

Abstract

A community-based intervention for stroke reduction is feasible and effective in the cities of China. The reduction, due to the intervention, in the incidence of stroke in the intervention cohort was statistically significant after 3.5 years of intervention. The sharp reduction in the incidence of stroke may be due to the interventions having blunted the expected increase in hypertension that accompanies aging as well as to better and earlier treatment of hypertension, particularly borderline hypertension. Applied health education to all the residents of the community may have prevented some normotensive individuals from developing hypertension and improved overall health awareness and knowledge.