Sex difference in the incidence of stroke and its corresponding influence factors: results from a follow-up 8.4 years of rural China hypertensive prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND

Few studies investigate sex difference in stroke incidence in rural China hypertensive population.

METHODS

A total of 5097 hypertensive patients aged ≥35 years (mean age, 56.3 ± 11.2 years; 43.8% men) were included in our analysis with a median follow-up 8.4 years in Fuxin county of Liaoning province in China. Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze the association between the potential factors and incident stroke.

RESULTS

We observed 501 new strokes (310 ischemic, 186 hemorrhagic, and 5 unclassified stroke) during the follow-up. The overall incidence of stroke was 1235.21 per 100,000 person-years; for men, the rates were 1652.51 and 920.80 for women. This sex difference in all stroke can be explained by approximately 25% through age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, current smoking, current drinking, antihypertensive drugs, education and physical activity. Subgroup analysis indicated that in hemorrhagic stroke this sex difference was more remarkable (63.89% can be explained).

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of stroke was higher in men than that in women and this difference was partly explained by several traditional cardiovascular risk factors.