title: Potassium intake and risk of stroke in women with hypertension and nonhypertension in the Women's Health Initiative.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dietary potassium has been associated with lower risk of stroke, but there are little data on dietary potassium effects on different stroke subtypes or in older women with hypertension and nonhypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study population consisted of 90 137 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 at enrollment, free of stroke history at baseline, followed up prospectively for an average of 11 years. Outcome variables were total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke, and all-cause mortality. Incidence was compared across quartiles of dietary potassium intake, and hazard ratios were obtained from Cox proportional hazards models after adjusting for potential confounding variables, and in women with hypertension and nonhypertension separately.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean dietary potassium intake was 2611 mg/d. Highest quartile of potassium intake was associated with lower incidence of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke and total mortality. Multivariate analyses comparing highest to lowest quartile of potassium intake indicated a hazard ratio of 0.90 (95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.95) for all-cause mortality, 0.88 (95% confidence interval, 0.79-0.98) for all stroke, and 0.84 (95% confidence interval, 0.74-0.96) for ischemic stroke. The effect on ischemic stroke was more apparent in women with nonhypertension among whom there was a 27% lower risk with hazard ratio of 0.73 (95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.88), interaction P<0.10. There was no association with hemorrhagic stroke.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High potassium intake is associated with a lower risk of all stroke and ischemic stroke, as well as all-cause mortality in older women, particularly those who are not hypertensive.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Arjun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seth
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Yasmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mossavar-Rahmani
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kamensky
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Silver
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Kamakshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lakshminarayan
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prentice
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.).
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Horn
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (A.S., Y.M.-R., V.K., S.W.-S.); Department of Neurology, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence (B.S.); Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.); Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA (R.P.); and Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (L.V.H.). Sylvia.smoller@einstein.yu.edu.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wassertheil-Smoller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D017419:Potassium, Dietary; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D017419:Potassium, Dietary
keywords: dietary; hypertension; postmenopause; potassium; stroke