The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #65515

FungChang J Sung¹, SC Liau², PC Chen¹, YT Lee², and R. S. Lin³. (1) Institute of Environmental Health, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, 1 Jen Ai Road Section 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, 886-2-2312-3456 ex. 8461, sung@ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw, (2) Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, 1 Jen Ai Road Section 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, (3) Institute of Epidemiology, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, 1 Jen Ai Road Section 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan

Stroke is the second most lethal cause of death for population in Taiwan. But there are limited studies investigating risk factors associated with stroke. The authors examined the association between usual life style, hypertension and risk of stroke in a hospital based case-control study that included 131 stroke cases in four community hospitals and 130 randomly selected controls from the same hospitals aged 60 years old above. There was no significant difference between cases and controls in age, occupation, education, smoking and exercise, while cases drank (16.9 percent) more commonly than controls (4.7 percent). Cases were also more common with hypertension than controls, 72.3 vs. 37.8 percent. The multivariate logistic regression showed that, among all lifestyle variables, drinking was the only significant risk factor associated with stroke (odds ratio (OR)=6.2, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.9-20.4). Compared with controls, other significant factors associated with the risk of stroke were patients of hypertension (OR=4.2, 95%CI=2.2-8.0) and patients of 60-69 years old (OR=3.8, 95%CI=1.3-11.4). The findings suggest that drink increases the risk of stroke for population in Taiwan.

Learning Objectives:

• To examine the association between usual lifestyle, hypertension and the risk of stroke in a socioeconomic developing area.

Keywords: Strokes, Alcohol Use

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.