A Descriptive Study of Total Serum Homocysteine Status in Adult Henan Province, China

Background: Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Total serum homocysteine (tHcy) status varies greatly with ethnicity and gender. Here, we studied the tHcy status by investigating concentration of tHcy and calculating prevalence of HHcy according to different age groups and genders. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 10,258 participants (7,248 males and 3,010 females) above 19 years old from Henan Province, northern China. tHcy levels were determined enzymatically. HHcy was defined as a tHcy level higher than 15 mu mol/L. Results: In the whole population, the median value of tHcy was 13.56 (11.50, 16.50) mu mol/L, and the HHcy prevalence was 34.61%. Males had much higher tHcy levels than females: 14.51 (12.58, 17.71) mu mol/L vs. 11.23 (9.75, 12.97) mu mol/L, p < 0.001. Also, males had much higher HHcy prevalence than females (44.33% vs. 11.20%, p < 0.001, OR = 6.33, 95% CI: 5.59 7.14). HHcy prevalence and tHcy levels increased greatly for both genders above 60 years old. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that prevalence of HHcy is very high in northern China. Implementation of is needed.

Automated summary

The study found that the prevalence of HHcy is very high in northern China, with higher rates and tHcy levels observed in males compared to females. Additionally, both genders experience a significant increase in HHcy prevalence and tHcy levels with age.