http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Lifestyle/tobacco_linked_to_stroke_1213120844.html
12/14/2012 02:44:00admin
By Jimmy Downs
Thursday Dec 13, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) — Tobacco use has been known to increase risk of lung cancer. A population-based case-control study in Tobacco Control suggests that tobacco smoking may also drastically increase risk of stroke.
The study led by Ruth Bonita, University Geriatric Unit, North Shore Hospital in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand and colleagues conducted the study and found active tobacco smoking were fourfold as likely as those who did not smoke to suffer stroke during a 10-year follow-up.
The study involved 521 patients with first acute stroke and 1851 community controls aged 35 to 74 years.
After adjustment for possible confounders including age, gender, history of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes mellitus, both passive tobacco smoking or second hand smoking and long-term smoking in the past were correlated with a 82 percent increased risk of stroke.
Men were more prone to the effect of tobacco smoking than women. Male smokers were twice as likely as those who did not smoke to suffer stroke while female smokers were 66 percent more likely to get hit by stroke compared to non-smokers.
Active tobacco smokers had a fourfold risk of stroke, compared with those never-smokers. The increase in the risk was increased by 533 percent in those active smokers, compared with those who had ever smoked or had quit smoking for more than 10 years and who were not ever exposed to any environmental tobacco smoke including second-hand smoke.