Primary prevention of stroke by healthy lifestyle.
BACKGROUND
The combination of healthy lifestyle factors is associated with lower risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, and total cardiovascular disease. Little is known about the impact of multiple lifestyle factors on the risk of stroke.


RESULTS
We conducted a prospective cohort study among 43,685 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and 71,243 women from the Nurses' Health Study. Diet and other lifestyle factors were updated from self-reported questionnaires. We defined a low-risk lifestyle as not smoking, a body mass index <25 kg/m(2), >or=30 min/d of moderate activity, modest alcohol consumption (men, 5 to 30 g/d; women, 5 to 15 g/d), and scoring within the top 40% of a healthy diet score. We documented 1559 strokes (853 ischemic, 278 hemorrhagic) among women and 994 strokes (600 ischemic, 161 hemorrhagic) among men during follow-up. Women with all 5 low-risk factors had a relative risk of 0.21 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12, 0.36) for total and 0.19 (95% CI, 0.09, 0.40) for ischemic stroke compared with women who had none of these factors. Among men, the relative risks were 0.31 (95% CI, 0.19, 0.53) for total and 0.20 (95% CI, 0.10, 0.42) for ischemic stroke for the same comparison. Among the women, 47% (95% CI, 18 to 69) of total and 54% (95% CI, 15 to 78%) of ischemic stroke cases were attributable to lack of adherence to a low-risk lifestyle; among the men, 35% (95% CI, 7 to 58) of total and 52% (95% CI, 19 to 75) of ischemic stroke may have been prevented.


CONCLUSIONS
A low-risk lifestyle that is associated with a reduced risk of multiple chronic diseases also may be beneficial in the prevention of stroke, especially ischemic stroke.
Chiuve
Stephanie E
SE
Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. schiuve@hsph.harvard.edu
Rexrode
Kathryn M
KM
Spiegelman
Donna
D
Logroscino
Giancarlo
G
Manson
JoAnn E
JE
Rimm
Eric B
EB
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*