BACKGROUND

Han is the largest nationality and Zhuang is the largest minority among 56 nationalities in China. Hei Yi (means black-worship and black dressing) Zhuang is a special subgroup of 43 ethnic subgroups of Zhuang. There are limited data about the effect of environmental factors on the prevalence of hyperlipidemia in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of demographic, dietary, and other lifestyle factors on the prevalence of hyperlipidemia in Hei Yi Zhuang and Han populations.

DESIGN

We performed a cross-sectional study of 1166 randomly selected people of Hei Yi Zhuang aged 7-84 years from seven villages in Napo County, Guangxi, China; and 1018 people of Han aged 6-89 years from nine villages in the same region.

METHODS

Information on demographic characteristics, dietary patterns, and other lifestyle factors was collected by standard questionnaires. Blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference, serum lipids and apolipoproteins were measured, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated as a measure of weight relative to height.

RESULTS

The prevalence rates of hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperlipidemia in Hei Yi Zhuang and Han were 23.6 versus 27.0% (P>0.05), 12.3 versus 14.4% (P>0.05) and 29.9 versus 34.2% (P<0.05), respectively. The prevalence of hyperlipidemia was positively correlated with age, BMI and blood pressure (P<0.05- 0.001) in Hei Yi Zhuang, whereas it was positively associated with age, BMI, blood pressure and alcohol consumption in Han (P<0.01-0.001). There was no significant correlation between the prevalence of hyperlipidemia and sex or cigarette smoking in Hei Yi Zhuang, Han or a combined population of Hei Yi Zhuang and Han (P>0.05), and alcohol consumption in Hei Yi Zhuang (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION

The current study reveals that there is a significant difference in the prevalence of hyperlipidemia and its risk factors between Hei Yi Zhuang and Han, which might result from different demographic characteristics, dietary habits and other lifestyle factors.