Ten risk factors are responsible for 90% of all strokes, according to the findings of a major international study.
Hypertension is directly linked to nearly 50% of cases, researchers found, and physical inactivity to a third of cases.
The report in The Lancet also links poor diet, obesity, smoking diabetes, alcohol, stress and apolipoprotein to stroke – together with existing heart disease.
According to the researchers, many of the factors are closely linked – but together they account for 90.7% of all strokes.
The findings come from a case-control study involving nearly 27,000 people in every continent of the world.
Researcher Dr Martin O’Donnell, of the HRB-Clinical Research Facility, NUI Galway, Ireland, said: “This study is of an adequate size and scope to explore stroke risk factors in all major regions of the world, within key populations and within stroke subtypes. The wider reach confirms the ten modifiable risk factors associated with 90% of stroke cases in all regions, young and older and in men and women.
"The study confirms that hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor in all regions, and the key target in reducing the burden of stroke globally.”
Fellow researcher Profess Salim Yusuf, of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, said: "Our findings will inform the development of global population-level interventions to reduce stroke, and how such programmes may be tailored to individual regions, as we did observe some regional differences in the importance of some risk factors by region.
"This includes better health education, more affordable healthy food, avoidance of tobacco and more affordable medication for hypertension and dyslipidaemia.”
Global and regional effects of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with acute stroke in 32 countries (INTERSTROKE): a case-control study Lancet 15 July 2016 [Abstract]
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