Dairy consumption and risk of stroke in Swedish women and men.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Epidemiological studies of the associations of low-fat dairy and specific dairy food consumption with risk of stroke are sparse. Our aim was to examine the association between consumption of total, low-fat, full-fat, and specific dairy foods and risk of stroke in a prospective cohort study.

METHODS

We followed 74,961 Swedish women and men who were free from cardiovascular disease and cancer and who completed a 96-item food frequency questionnaire in 1997. Incident cases of stroke were ascertained from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry.

RESULTS

During a mean follow-up of 10.2 years, we ascertained 4089 cases of stroke, including 3159 cerebral infarctions, 583 hemorrhagic strokes, and 347 unspecified strokes. Consumption of low-fat dairy foods was inversely associated with risk of total stroke (P for trend=0.03) and cerebral infarction (P for trend=0.03). The multivariable relative risks for the highest compared with the lowest quintile of low-fat dairy consumption were 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80-0.97) for total stroke and 0.87 (95% CI, 0.78-0.98) for cerebral infarction. Consumption of total dairy, full-fat dairy, milk, sour milk/yogurt, cheese, and cream/crème fraiche was not associated with stroke risk.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that low-fat dairy consumption is inversely associated with the risk of stroke.