Donate Help Contact The AHA Sign In Home
American Heart Association
Stroke
Search: search_blue_button Advanced Search
Published Online
on January 31, 2008

Stroke. 2008
Published online before print January 31, 2008, doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.107.495374
A more recent version of this article appeared on March 1, 2008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
39/3/753    most recent
STROKEAHA.107.495374v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, M.
Right arrow Articles by Chen, Z.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, M.
Right arrow Articles by Chen, Z.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
Medline Plus Health Information
*Stroke
Related Collections
Right arrow Obesity
Right arrow Cerebrovascular disease/stroke

Submitted on June 1, 2007
Revised on July 25, 2007
Accepted on August 9, 2007

Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure, and Mortality From Stroke. A Nationally Representative Prospective Study of 212 000 Chinese Men

Maigeng Zhou MSc; Alison Offer PhD; Gonghuan Yang MD; Margaret Smith PhD; Gei Hui MSc; Gary Whitlock PhD; Rory Collins MSc; Zhengjing Huang MSc; Richard Peto FRS; and Zhengming Chen DPhil*

From the Disease Surveillance Points Central Office (M.Z., G.Y., G.H., Z.H.), Chinese Center for Disease Control, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (A.O., M.S., G.W., R.C., R.P., Z.C.), University of Oxford, Oxford, England.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zhengming.chen{at}ctsu.ox.ac.uk.

Background and Purpose—Despite previous investigations, substantial uncertainty remains about the relation between body mass index (BMI) and stroke, especially in populations with a relatively low BMI but a high stroke rate.

Methods—A nationally representative prospective study of mortality included 212 000 Chinese men 40 to 79 years old without known cardiovascular disease in 1990 to 1991 who were followed up for 10 years. Standardized hazard ratios were calculated for stroke mortality by baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) and BMI.

Results—Mean SBP and BMI were 124 mm Hg and 21.7 kg/m2, respectively. During 10 years of follow-up, 5766 stroke deaths were recorded. There were strong, positive relations between BMI and SBP and between SBP and stroke mortality, with a 3-mm Hg higher baseline SBP associated with a 5.6% (95% CI, 5.3% to 6.0%; P<0.00001) higher stroke mortality. The association between BMI and stroke mortality was, however, not linear, with the hazard increasing substantially only for BMI >25 kg/m2 (P<0.001 for nonlinearity). Approximately 90% of men had a baseline BMI <25 kg/m2, and among them, BMI was not associated with stroke mortality despite its strong association with BP (which continued to a BMI <18 kg/m2). The relation with BMI was similar for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke but appeared to be steeper among lifelong nonsmokers than among current smokers (P=0.01 for difference between slopes) despite similarly positive relations between BMI and SBP and between SBP and stroke risk in both smoking categories.

Conclusions—High BMI was strongly associated with increased stroke mortality only among men who were overweight or obese.


Key words: blood pressure • body mass index • cohort study • mortality • stroke




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
StrokeHome page
A. Towfighi and B. Ovbiagele
The Impact of Body Mass Index on Mortality After Stroke
Stroke, August 1, 2009; 40(8): 2704 - 2708.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
StrokeHome page
X. Zhang, X.-O. Shu, Y.-T. Gao, G. Yang, H. Li, and W. Zheng
General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Stroke in Chinese Women
Stroke, April 1, 2009; 40(4): 1098 - 1104.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]