Prospective study in 250,000 middle-aged Chinese individuals
The CTSU has established, along with its collaborators in China, a nationally representative study which (in 1991) recorded smoking, drinking, weight, height, blood pressure, lung function, medical history and various social factors in about 225,000 adult men. Reliable systems of follow-up are in place, and by 1996 the dates and causes of 12,000 deaths had been recorded. Of these deaths, vascular, neoplastic, respiratory and all other causes each accounted for about one-quarter. Preliminary analyses support the conclusion from other studies that, during the 1990s, at least 0.6 million deaths each year in China are directly attributable to smoking [86].
Long-term follow-up is continuing, with periodic re-surveys of all middle-aged adults living in the study areas, to monitor the evolution of the epidemic. In addition, it is proposed that blood samples be collected at the next re-survey so that nested case-control analyses can be conducted subsequently (as in the Mexican study).
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