Hypertension patterns across 27 Chinese provinces shifted westward, study finds

Researchers analyzed province-level hypertension prevalence across 27 provinces using adjusted sampling weights from five waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), covering 2011–2020. They used spatial autocorrelation and hotspot analyses, then applied GeoDetector to assess the explanatory power and interactions of 11 demographic, climatic, economic and health-resource factors. The source does not report the number of individual participants in this analysis.

Spatial patterns changed over the study period: high-prevalence hotspots were initially concentrated in southeastern coastal provinces, had dissipated by 2015, shifted westward, and were spatially more homogeneous by 2020. Industrial SO₂ emissions had the highest reported single-factor explanatory power (q=0.277), followed by the number of primary healthcare institutions (q=0.191). Their interaction had a q value of 0.51, indicating stronger joint explanatory power in the model.

The findings describe provincial-level associations, not individual risk or causal effects. The authors report that core factor rankings were robust to a sensitivity analysis, but the results do not establish that pollution or healthcare infrastructure caused hypertension patterns or demonstrate the effects of specific interventions. The study was supported by a Chinese national science and technology project; the authors declared no competing interests.