Women who smoke face high stroke risks, study says

By Jim Killackey

Published: September 30, 2008

Women who smoke are more than twice as likely to have a stroke as their nonsmoking friends and colleagues, American Heart Association researchers note in a new study.

The more cigarettes a woman smokes, the bigger her stroke risk, the study showed. Researchers studied women ages 15 to 49, finding that women who smoke one to 10 cigarettes per day increase their risk 2.2 times.

In Oklahoma, about 79,000 women between the ages of 18 and 34 are daily smokers, according to the state Health Department.

The national study followed 466 women who had suffered their first strokes. A comparison group consisted of 604 women of similar age, race and ethnicity who had not had a stroke. Risk drops after quitting

Stroke risk decreases significantly three years after smoking stops. After five years of being smoke-free, ex-smokers have the same stroke risk as people who’ve never smoked. People who quit smoking before age 35 can have the same life expectancy as those who have never smoked, the study showed.

The study was published in “Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.”

“This study should provide a wake-up call for women to seriously consider the horrible health risks they take by smoking and the good news that when they quit, their risks of stroke return to normal,” said Dr. Philip B. Adamson, medical director of the Oklahoma Foundation for Cardiovascular Research in Oklahoma City.

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