Parental smoking and smoking experimentation in childhood increase the risk of being a smoker 20 years later: the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study.

Aims: To examine the long-term effects of childhood smoking experimentation and exposure to parental smoking on adult smoking risk.

Methods: Data were from a 20-year follow-up of 9-15-year-olds who completed questionnaires in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey (n=6559). The relative risks (RR) of adult current smoking in 2004-05 for childhood exposure to smoking experimentation (never, a few puffs, <10 cigarettes, >10 cigarettes) and parental smoking (none, father, mother, both parents) in 1985, with adjustment for confounders, were estimated by log binomial modelling.

The large and growing burden of stroke.

Stroke is a disease with impacts ranging from death and disability, to reduced health-related quality of life and depression. To truly understand the burden of this disease we must investigate not only the mortality and prevalence of stroke, but also its incidence within populations. Stroke mortality and incidence declined rapidly during the 1980s and early 1990s; however, this trend appears to have slowed in more recent times.

Prevalence of depression and use of antidepressant medication at 5-years poststroke in the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study.

Background And Purpose: There are few data on the prevalence or treatment of depression from unselected populations long-term poststroke. We assessed the prevalence of depression and antidepressant use at 5-years poststroke in an unselected stroke population.

Methods: Five-year survivors from a prospective community-based stroke incidence study were assessed for depression with the Irritability, Depression and Anxiety Scale.

Control of hypertension 5 years after stroke in the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study.

Control of blood pressure after stroke is important for reducing the risk of recurrent stroke. We examined the control of hypertension in a community-based population of 5-year stroke survivors. Cases of first-ever stroke from the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study were interviewed at 5 years poststroke.

Greater incidence of both fatal and nonfatal strokes in disadvantaged areas: the Northeast Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study.

Background And Purpose: Greater stroke mortality has been reported among lower socioeconomic groups. We aimed to determine whether fatal, nonfatal, and overall stroke incidence varied by socioeconomic status.

Methods: All suspected strokes occurring in 22 postcodes (population of 306,631) of Melbourne, Australia, during a 24-month period between 1997 and 1999 were found and assessed.

Long-term outcome in the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study: predictors of quality of life at 5 years after stroke.

Background And Purpose: Although much is known about the long-term outcome of stroke patients in terms of mortality and disability, there has been little research on the patient-centered outcome of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There are limited natural history data on HRQoL beyond 2 years after stroke and no data on those factors present at stroke onset that predict HRQoL beyond 2 years after stroke. For these reasons, we aimed to examine these aspects of HRQoL in an unselected population of stroke patients.

Smoking as a crucial independent determinant of stroke.

Background: Although smoking is known to be powerful risk factor for other vascular diseases, such as cardiac and peripheral vascular disease, only relatively recently has evidence for the role of smoking in the development of stroke been established. The reasons for this advance lie in the acknowledgement that stroke is a heterogeneous disease, in which its subtypes are associated with different risk factors. Furthermore, improvements in the stringency of epidemiological studies and the greater use of CT scanning have enabled the role of smoking in the development of stroke to be elucidated.