Fish consumption and risk of stroke in Swedish women

Epidemiologic studies of fish consumption in relation to risk of stroke have yielded inconsistent results.

In this study, we examined the association between fish consumption and stroke incidence in women.

We analyzed data from a population-based prospective cohort of 34,670 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort who were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline. Information on fish consumption was obtained by a self-administered questionnaire in 1997. Incident cases of stroke were ascertained from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs.

Over a mean follow-up of 10.4 y, we ascertained 1680 incident cases of stroke, including 1310 cerebral infarctions, 233 hemorrhagic strokes, and 137 unspecified strokes. Fish consumption was significantly inversely associated with risk of total stroke but not with cerebral infarction or hemorrhagic stroke. Compared with women in the lowest quintile of fish consumption (<1.0 serving of fish/wk), the multivariable RR of total stroke for women in the highest quintile (>3.0 servings of fish/wk) was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.98; P for trend = 0.049). Consumption of lean fish but not of other fish types was inversely associated with risk of stroke. The multivariable RR of total stroke was 0.67 (95% CI: 0.49, 0.93; P for trend = 0.07) for ≥3 servings of lean fish/wk compared with that for no consumption.

These results suggest that the consumption of fish, especially of lean fish, may reduce risk of stroke in women. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01127698.