LIFE-STYLE-ASSOCIATED RISK-FACTORS FOR ACUTE BRAIN INFARCTION AMONG PERSONS OF WORKING AGE

Background and Purpose This study was designed to identify whether cig arette smoking, alcohol drinking, obesity, and use of oral contracepti ves are independent risk factors for brain infarction among persons of working age. Methods Health habits and previous diseases of 506 patie nts (366 men and 140 women aged 16 to 60 years) with acute first-ever symptomatic brain infarction were compared with those of 345 hospitali zed control patients (219 men and 126 women) who did not differ from c ase subjects in respect to day of onset of symptoms or acuteness of di sease onset. With the use of stepwise logistic regression, the variabl es for which the simultaneous risks of acute brain infarction were tes ted by sex were age, amount of alcohol consumed within 24 hours and 1 week before the illness, heavy drinking, smoking status, current smoki ng, cardiac disease, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipemia, migraine, b ody mass index, and, in women, current use of oral contraceptives. Res ults Intake of >40 g ethanol within the 24 hours preceding the onset o f illness increased the risk for acute brain infarction both among men (P<.001) and women (P<.01) independently from other risk factors. Oth er significant independent risk factors for brain infarction among men were hypertension (P<.001), cardiac disease (P<.01), current smoking (P<.01), diabetes (P<.05), and history of migraine (P<.05) and among w omen, current use of oral contraceptives (P<.01) and current smoking ( P<.05). Conclusions Recent heavy drinking of alcohol, hypertension, ca rdiac disease, current smoking, diabetes, and history of migraine amon g men, and recent heavy drinking of alcohol, current use of oral contr aceptives, and current smoking among women, seem to be independent ris k factors for acute brain infarction.