They have as much as 50 times the incidence of people over 90. They have less cancers and so forth than the rest of China.
What is the meaning of first sentence? What is the meaning of "over 90" and "incidence of people"?
Thank you.
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2 Answers
As Urbanski says, "over 90" here means "over 90 years old".
"Incidence" means rate of occurrence. So he's saying that the percentage of the population that is over 90 years old in this place is 50 times as many as in some other place. So maybe in place A 0.1% of the population is over 90 but in place B it is 5.0%. Presumably what those two places are is explained elsewhere in the context, I'm guessing it's one particular city or province versus China as a whole.
"Over 90" probably refers to people who are more than 90 years old. It's common to leave out the "years old" part if it can be gathered from context. Examples: ("I'm turning 10!", "He was like over 40...", "I hope I never turn 30.")
"Incidence" is a synonym for "occurrences" but it tends to have negative connotations.
Honestly though, the first sentence is kind of awkwardly worded. "Incidence" seems like an odd word choice if they are just describing the number of elderly people.
They have as many as 50 times the number of people over 90.
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2+1 for making the point that OP's example is "awkward" (read: probably came from a non-native speaker, or one with limited command of English). Commented Apr 2, 2015 at 18:31
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1@Fumble - Or was taken out of a passage where previous statements would have made the sentence less awkward and more clear.– J.R. ♦Commented Apr 2, 2015 at 21:27