International Journal of Stroke Research 2015, 3(1): 1-5 DOI: 10.5923/j.stroke.20150301.01 Risk Factors for Stroke: A Hospital Based Descriptive Study in North India Rayaz Jan * , Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Parveen Singh, Tajali Shora, Shahid Hussain PG Department of Community Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Jammu, India Abstract Introduction: Stroke is a major public health problem, both in developed and developing world. It causes a lot of morbidity and mortality especially with advancing age and lot of economic burden on the families of those afflicted with stroke. Aim: To find out the association of risk factors like Obesity, Cholesterol, Smoking and Alcohol to the Stroke. Methodology: The present descriptive study was conducted in the calendar year of 2011. The study subjects comprised of the patients who were admitted to Govt. Medical College and Hospital Jammu with sign and symptoms suggestive of stroke. The relevant information of each study subject was recorded on pre-designed and pre-tested proforma. Results: A total of 209 respondents (114 males and 95 females) were interviewed during the course of study. 57.90% (121/209) study subjects were found to be obese. 77.96% (92/118) had cholesterol level on the higher side. Out of 114 males in the current study 60.52% (69/114) were smoker and 62.28% (71/114) were alcoholic. Both smoking and alcohol were found to be statistically significant risk factors for stroke. Conclusions: The results clearly demonstrate that lifestyle factors have a huge impact on the causation of non-communicable diseases in general and stroke in particular and hence the need for primordial prevention at the earliest. Keywords Stroke, Obesity, Smoking, Alcohol, Risk factors 1. Introduction Stroke is a significant public health problem both in developed and developing world. Stroke caused 11% of global deaths in 2011 and was the second most frequent cause of death. [1] The trends have shown that number of stroke cases decreased by 10% in developed world but increased by 10% in the developing world between 1990 and 2010, [2] which has serious repercussions for the least developed and the developing nations. The estimated cost of stroke related healthcare is about 68.9 billion dollars both in terms of health care as well as lost productivity. [3] South Asia comprising of eight countries including India constitutes 22% of the world’s population and accounts for about 40% of global stroke deaths. In this region of the world, stroke and coronary heart disease occur a decade earlier than the rest of the world. [4] It is therefore imperative to study epidemiology including risk factors, region-specific issues and outcome of stroke in different regions of India. The specifics so understood would help in reducing burden of stroke and improve outcome. Considering the prevalence, incidence, morbidity and mortality and rising trend in younger population and in * Corresponding author: janrayaz@gmail.com (Rayaz Jan) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/stroke Copyright © 2015 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved developing countries it seems mandatory to search for risk factors that predispose to stroke. In developed countries various endeavors are on for early diagnosis and appropriate management to reduce stroke related morbidity and mortality. But scenario in our country is different. Burden of disease in India (2005) [5] had estimated that there had been an increase in the number of stroke cases in India during the last one and a half decade by 17.05%, thus showing a worrying upward trends of disease. A variety of risk factors have been implicated in the causation of stroke. In the modifiable risk factors for stroke, high blood pressure, and atrial fibrillation are the most important, the rest being high blood cholesterol levels, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, Lack of physical activity, obesity, unhealthy diet, [6] heavy alcohol consumption. [7] In the non-modifiable risk factors, advanced age is the single most significant risk factor as 95% of stroke cases occur in people aged 45 years and above and 2/3 rd of stroke occur in those over the age of 65 years. Besides, men are 25% more likely to suffer strokes than women. [8, 9] In this part of country viz Northern India, very limited published literature is available especially in context of risk factors in stroke causation. It was in this context that this risk factor study was conducted in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State, India (Fig 1). The present hospital based study was conducted in the Government medical college and hospital Jammu, with the aim to find out the association of