Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Stroke in Middle-Aged Women

Abstract

It is known that cigarette smoking is associated with increased risk of both thrombotic and hemorrhagic stroke among men. To test for such an association among women, we examined the incidence of stroke in relation to cigarette smoking in a prospective cohort study of 118,539 women 30 to 55 years of age and free from coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer in 1976. During eight years of follow-up (908,447 person-years), we identified 274 strokes, comprising 71 subarachnoid hemorrhages, 26 intracerebral hemorrhages, 122 thromboembolic strokes, and 55 strokes about which information was insufficient to permit classification.