China Rural Health Initiative: High Cardiovascular Risk Management and Salt Reduction in Rural Villages in China -- Two Parallel Large Cluster Randomized Controlled Trials

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in China. At the village level, strategies for the control of cardiovascular disease are mostly absent. National clinical guidelines for the management of hypertension and cardiovascular disease are rarely disseminated to, or implemented by, the village primary care providers. Salt reduction has greater potential in rural China than almost anywhere else in the world. Very high levels of salt consumption, very little use of processed food and most dietary salt deriving from home cooking makes the removal of salt from the diet easier, cheaper and more worthwhile than in almost any other setting. The two large-scale cluster-randomized controlled trials proposed here will precisely and reliably define the effect of two highly plausible intervention strategies on important clinical outcomes. The evidence provided by the project will form the basis for policy setting that has the potential to greatly reduce the occurrence of vascular disease in rural China and take an important step towards balancing the rural urban divide in health and healthcare.