A Spatial Analysis of Urbanization, Migration and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in China: A Regional Comparison to Inform Future Health Care Policy for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

Susana Beatriz Adamo, CIESIN and PERN, Columbia University
Guillaume Karakouzian, École Polytechnique, France
Andrew Moran, Columbia University
Valentina Mara, Columbia University
Jiang He, Tulane University

China is rapidly urbanizing, and rural-urban migration represents a large proportion of the increase of population in cities. Improved standard of living and life expectancy resulting from this change are countered by the increased levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors associated with urbanization. Data from different sources in a GIS environment, regional differences in CVD factors, rural-urban migration patterns, urbanization trends and selected quality of life indicators in China ca2000 were analyzed. The objective was to generate regional-specific inputs for a CVD policy model that can inform future urban and rural targeted health care policies in the setting of dynamic population changes. Preliminary results from this exploratory spatial analysis (using Moran´s I, LISA, and geographic regression in GEODA) show a broad regional heterogeneity in urbanization and migration, with W-E differences somewhat larger than the N-S ones.