Low-educated smokers at greater stroke risk: Study

Adults smokers with limited education face a greater risk of stroke than those with a higher education, says a study.

"We found it is worse being a current smoker with lower education than a current smoker with a higher education," said Helene Nordahl, a researcher at the department of public health at University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Researchers divided 68,643 Danish adults in age group 30-70 into low, medium and high education levels and assessed smoking and high blood pressure levels.

They found that 16 percent of men and 11 percent of women were at high-risk of stroke due to low education level, smoking and high blood pressure.

Men were more at risk of stroke than women and the risk of stroke increased with age.

Smokers with low education had a greater risk of stroke than smokers with high education regardless of their blood pressure.

"Since the most disadvantaged groups are often exposed to a wide number of stroke risk factors, it seems plausible that these people are at higher risk of stroke not only in Denmark, but also in other countries," Nordahl maintained.

Universal interventions such as legislation or taxation could also have a strong effect on stroke in the most disadvantaged, researchers noted.

The research was available in the journal Stroke.