OBJECTIVEThe aim of the study was to investigate the association between tea consumption and stroke.

METHODSA cross sectional study was conducted in autumn, 1998. The subjects were from 12 provinces in China. 15 groups of populations were selected by cluster randomized sampling and each group had about 1000 persons, aged from 35 to 60 years old. 14 212 subjects had complete data for analysis. Data regarding tea drinking would include drinking status, dose and type of teas. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between tea consumption and stroke.

RESULTSThere was a strong inverse correlation between tea drinking and stroke after adjusting other risk factors of stroke (P < 0.05). The odds ratio (OR) of stroke was 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42 - 0.85] for subjects who drank tea compared to those who did not. Increased amount of tea consumption per month was associated with decreased stroke prevalence. The association for tea consumption over 150 gram per month and stroke was statistically significant (P < 0.05) with an OR value of 0.56 (95% CI: 0.36 - 0.89). Analytical results indicated that the OR value was 0.24 (95% CI: 0.06 - 1.01) for black tea and other tea (P = 0.05). The OR value was 0.35 (95% CI: 0.18 - 0.72) for green tea (P < 0.01), and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.51 - 1.11) for jasmine tea (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONTea drinking was independently associated with prevalence of stroke which might play a role in the prevention of the disease.