Less educated smokers are at greater risk of stroke compared to smokers with higher education, a new study by Danish researchers shows.
The study was conducted on 68,643 adults who were divided into three groups based on their education level - low, medium and high. Researchers defined lower education as grade school or lower secondary school (maximum of 10 years).
Researchers observed their smoking habit and measured their high blood pressure levels. According to the findings, 16 percent of the men and 11 percent of women were at greater risk of a stroke because of low education, smoking and high blood pressure. Men had increased risk of stroke than women and the risk increased with age.
After a 14-year follow-up period, researchers found that almost 10 percent of high-risk men and 9 percent of high-risk women had an ischemic stroke. The risk of stroke was more among smokers with low education than smokers with higher education, regardless of their blood pressure levels.
"We found it is worse being a current smoker with lower education than a current smoker with a higher education," Helene Nordahl, Ph.D., M.S.C., study lead author and researcher at the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in a press release. "Targeted interventions aimed at reducing smoking and high blood pressure in lower socioeconomic groups would yield a greater reduction in stroke than targeting the same behaviors in higher socioeconomic groups."
"Universal interventions such as legislation or taxation could also have a strong effect on stroke in the most disadvantaged," Nordahl said. "We need to challenge disparities in unhealthy behaviors, particularly smoking."
Researchers were unable to judge differences associated with ethnicity as 98 percent of the participants were Danes.
Nordahl explained that the distribution of stroke risk factors might differ across various contexts and study populations. "However, since the most disadvantaged groups are often exposed to a wide number of stroke risk factors, it seems plausible that these people are at higher risk of stroke not only in Denmark, but also in other industrialized countries."
The study was published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
