Rapid socioeconomic progress in China has greatly impacted the lifestyle of citizens. The tendency to develop cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has increased in China as a consequence of lifestyle changes, urbanization, and the accelerated aging of the population. The incidence of CVD has been continuously increasing and will continue an upward trend in the next decade.

CVD is the leading cause of death in both urban and rural Chinese populations. Currently, 45.50% of deaths in rural areas and 43.16% in urban areas are attributable to CVD. The growing burden of CVD has become a major public health issue. Effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of CVD should be enforced urgently under the supervision of the government. On 14th February 2017, General Offi ce of the State Council issued The Medium- and Long-term Plan for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control in China (2017-2025), a guideline for the prevention and control of chronic diseases, especially CVD in China, which should be appropriately followed and implemented as the recommendations.

Since 2005, the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases has been recruiting experts nationwide to compile the Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China annually (herein after referred to as the annual report). To date, 13 annual reports have been published. In the year of the publication of the fi rst annual report, it was selected among the top ten academic news for its innovation and importance. In 2015, 

the National Health Commission listed the annual report as one of the fi ve most important regularly-released health information in the fi eld of diseases prevention and control in China. The annual report was published to dynamically track the prevalence of CVD and comprehensively evaluate the progress of research on CVD prevention in the country. It covers various aspects of the research and development of prevention for CVD throughout the nation, primarily focusing on monitoring cardiovascular (CV) epidemic trends to guide the management of CVD. The report seeks to be comprehensive, timely, accurate and complete, to refl ect its representativeness and authority, and to provide technical guidance for the government, medical research institutions and communities to carry out more effective research on prevention and control of CVD.

In addition to maintaining the continuity of the core content in the previous annual reports, the Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China 2018 has added three key points to deal with the current severe situation of CVD in China: (1) Prediction for the trend of CVD and individual risks in Chinese population. A comprehensive analysis of predictive models on CVD risks was performed in individuals or populations at different control levels of risk factors, emphasizing a lifetime risk assessment for young- and middle-aged people with low- or intermediate-level of risk of CVD, to facilitate the early prevention and control of CVD; (2) Medical care quality assessment on CVD. Based on relevant literatures published in recent years, objective analysis was conducted on the medical care quality of CVD in China. It revealed that both progress and weakness exist. In 2015, the medical care quality and accessibility index in China