OBJECTIVETo assess the relationship between parental history and the incidence of stroke in Chinese populations.

METHODSA total of 15,131 individuals (7015 men and 8116 women, aged from 35 to 59 years) in China were enrolled and followed up from 1992 to 2005. Information on the parental history of stroke of the participants was collected at baseline study under face to face interview. Individuals were divided into three groups according to their parental history of hypertension: those with no parental history of hypertension (Group 1), those with only one parent having the history of hypertension (Group 2) and those with both parents having the history of hypertension (Group 3). The hazard ratio and its 95% confidence interval were calculated using the Cox proportional hazard model.

RESULTSThere were 370 stroke events during 163 858 person-years of observation. After adjusting for age and sex, the hazard ratioon stroke for group 1, group 2 and group 3 were 1.00, 1.74 (1.33-2.29), 3.61 (1.86-7.01), respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, smoking, drinking, serum total cholesterol (TC), high density lipid cholesterol (HDL-C), fasting glucose, body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the model, the hazard ratio for stroke of those three groups were 1.00, 1.34 (1.02-1.77), 2.50 (1.29-4.87), respectively.

CONCLUSIONIndividuals with parental history of stroke had a higher risk of stroke, and this was especially true for those with both parents having the history of stroke.