Clustering of Non-communicable Diseases Risk Factors in Healthy Adults Aged 35 Years and Older in Shenzhen,China

We assessed the prevalence of non‐ communicable diseases（NCDs） risk factors with a focus on their clustering among healthy adults in Shenzhen, China. Data from the 2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey, comprising a regionally representative sample of 806 healthy adults aged 35 years or older, were obtained to determine the prevalence of five risk factors for NCDs. The prevalence of current smoking, central obesity, impaired fasting glucose, borderline hypertension, and borderline high total cholesterol was 19.97%, 28.29%, 4.47%, 10.55%, and 36.10%, respectively. A total 63.77% of participants had at least one risk factor. Upon examination of risk factor clustering, we observed that 7.57% of participants had at least three risk factors. Using this threshold as a cutoff, clustering of risk factors was associated with sex [odds ratio（OR） = 3.336, 95% confidence interval（CI）： 1.782 to 6.246], physical activity（OR = 1.913, 95% CI： 1.009 to 3.628）, and BMI（OR = 7.376, 95% CI： 3.812 to 14.270）. The prevalence of risk factors for NCDs is fairly high among healthy adults in Shenzhen, with a clustering tendency.

iLABMED,why now and how in the future?

Nowadays,public health is facing many challenges,mainly including non‐communicable diseases and communicable diseases.Communicable diseases,particularly emerging infectious diseases,have also attracted attention due to their enormous impact on public health and the global economy.The most prominent example is the current global Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID‐19)pandemic.The unprece-dented and ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has high-lighted the necessity for readily available,accurate,and rapid laboratory medicine(LM)practices.Nevertheless,current LMs and journals in particular have a window for improvement.First,there are limited numbers of professionals available in this field compared to the other disciplines.The current status quo is that most LM manuscripts must be submitted to comprehensive journals or other journals related to the research disease.Second,most LM journals are run by laboratory personnel who are often more concerned with technical advances than with clinical needs.Lastly,several young LM scientists expressed their desire to have a dedicated platform to discuss,communicate,and publish their works on LM.We were therefore motivated to launch iLABMED,an international public forum dedicated to LMs.The establishment of iLABMED adopts the“four I”strat-egy,namely“Innovation,”“Intelligence,”“Integra-tion,”and“International.”We are attempting to establish a top‐tier journal in the field of LM.