title: Comparison of risk factors for fatal stroke and ischemic heart disease: a prospective follow up of the health survey for England.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to compare risk factors for stroke and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a large general population cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective cohort of 82,380 participants (aged 55.4 [SD 14.2 yrs], 44.8% men) without known history of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) at baseline was pooled from ten years (1994-2004) of the Health Survey for England. Study members were followed, on average, over 8 years for cause-specific mortality using linkage to national registers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 806 and 1346 stroke and IHD deaths, respectively. The major risk factors for stroke included age (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.15, 95% CI, 1.13-1.17), smoking (HR = 1.71; 1.20-2.44), diabetes (HR = 1.75; 1.05-2.93), total cholesterol (HR per SD = 0.78; 0.69-0.89), and systolic BP (HR per SD = 1.22; 1.08-1.38). In addition to these risk factors, IHD was also predicted by high density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen. This pattern of results was consistent among younger (<70 yrs) and older adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In a large representative cohort of the general population we found a differential pattern of risk markers for stroke compared with IHD. This was not explained by differences in age at onset of disease.
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK. m.hamer@ucl.ac.uk
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Hamer
authors: G David
authors: GD
authors: Batty
authors: Emmanuel
authors: E
authors: Stamatakis
authors: Mika
authors: M
authors: Kivimaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000401:mortality*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000401:mortality*; D013997:Time Factors