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Air pollution emerges as leading stroke risk factor: study

Xinhua, June 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Environmental and household air pollution was associated with about a third of the global burden of stroke in 2013, according to a new study recently published in the journal The Lancet Neurology.

An international team of researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate the disease burden of stroke associated with 17 risk factors in 188 countries and regions between 1990 to 2013.

They estimated the population-attributable fraction (PAF) of stroke-related disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) -- the estimated proportion of disease burden in a population that would be avoided if exposure to a risk factor were eliminated.

Globally, the ten leading risk factors for stroke were high blood pressure, diet low in fruit, high body mass index (BMI), diet high in sodium, smoking, diet low in vegetables, environmental air pollution, household pollution from solid fuels, diet low in whole grains, and high blood sugar, according to the study.

About a third of global disability associated with stroke is linked to air pollution in 2013. This is especially high in developing countries, which is 33.7 percent compared with 10.2 percent in developed countries.

In 2013, 16.9 percent of the global stroke burden was attributed to environmental air pollution -- almost as much as that from smoking (20.7 percent). From 1990 to 2013, stroke burden associated with environmental air pollution has increased by over 33 percent.

"A striking finding of our study is the unexpectedly high proportion of stroke burden attributable to environmental air pollution, especially in developing countries," said lead author Professor Valery L Feigin, from New Zealand's Auckland University of Technology.

Smoking, poor diet and low physical activity are some of the major risk factors for stroke worldwide, suggesting that stroke is largely a disease caused by lifestyle risk factors, and "controlling these risk factors could prevent about three-quarters of strokes worldwide," said Feigin. Endit