The risk of stroke more than doubles for African Americans who smoke compared to their nonsmoking peers, according to a new study.
“That risk becomes higher as the number of cigarettes smoked per day increases. The more you smoke, the more you stroke,” lead author Dr. Adebamike Oshunbade said in a news release. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and a fellow at the American Heart Association’s Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center.
Researchers reviewed more than a decade of data from participants in the Jackson Heart Study, the largest in the U.S. assessing cardiovascular risk factors among African Americans. It included 5,306 participants ages 21 to 84.
The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found stroke risk was 2.5 times higher for current smokers compared with never smokers. The number of daily cigarettes made a difference. The risk increased 2.3 times for people who smoked one to 19 cigarettes a day and 2.8 times for those who smoked more than 20.