Lifestyle factors on the risks of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke

Abstract

Background: The joint effects of different lifestyle factors on stroke risk are still to some extent unclear, especially regarding hemorrhagic stroke. Methods: We prospectively investigated the association of different indicators of lifestyle (smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and vegetable and alcohol consumption) with total and type-specific stroke incidence among 36 686 Finnish participants who were 25 to 74 years old and free of coronary heart disease and stroke at baseline. Results: During a mean follow-up period of 13.7 years, 1478 people developed an incident stroke event (1167 ischemic and 311 hemorrhagic). The multivariate-adjusted (age, sex, education, family history of stroke, history of diabetes mellitus, systolic blood pressure, and serum total cholesterol level) hazard ratios associated with adherence to 0 to 1 (reference group), 2, 3, 4, and 5 healthy lifestyle indicators were 1, 0.66, 0.57, 0.51, and 0.33 (P