Smoking cessation could be a path to fewer strokes, researchers say
African Americans who smoke are nearly 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke than those who never smoked, while former smokers show a similarly lower risk as never smokers, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The findings from the Jackson Heart Study suggests that even after years of smoking, African Americans—who as a group are twice as likely as whites to have a stroke and die from it—could significantly reduce their risk if they kicked the habit.
“This study provides further strong evidence of the link between cigarette smoking and stroke in African Americans,” said David Goff, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at NHLBI.
He noted that while smoking has been shown in major studies to raise the risk of stroke 1.5 times for the general population, “these adverse health effects seem to be magnified in African Americans.”
Study: Cigarette Smoking and Incident Stroke in African Americans of the Jackson Heart Study.
