Guidelines on how to manage cholesterol will be published and aimed at ordinary people in a bid to raise public awareness about protecting against coronary heart disease.

The project is being run by China's health ministry.

A cardiovascular disease report, released in 2015, indicated China was home to 290 million cardiovascular patients amid its 1.3 billion population. It said the disease was the country's deadliest threat.

According to Chen Weiwei, profession of Fuwai Hospital, CAMS & PUMC, cholesterol includes high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). The LDL-C is what the public knows as "bad" cholesterol, as it attaches itself to vessel walls and thus forms blocks, which are the main cause of life-threatening acute heart attacks and strokes.

Chen urged the public to take regular blood fat tests to check for the LDL-C hidden killer, as it exhibits no obvious symptoms before becoming life-threatening.

"Fifty-plus male and female over menopausal age should take the check every year and 20 plus adults should do it every five years," Chen said.

In 2016, the campaign will cover ten pilot cities nationwide with public commercials, photo exhibitions and a heart age test mobile app.