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Predicting stroke risk based on health behaviours: development of the Stroke Population Risk Tool (SPoRT)

Manuel DG, Tuna M, Perez R, Tanuseputro P, Hennessy D, Bennett C, Rosella L, Sanmartin C, van Walraven C, Tu JV. PLoS One. 2015; 10(12):e0143342.


Background — Health behaviours, important factors in cardiovascular disease, are increasingly a focus of prevention. We appraised whether stroke risk can be accurately assessed using self-reported information focused on health behaviours.

Methods — Behavioural, sociodemographic and other risk factors were assessed in a population-based survey of 82 259 Ontarians who were followed for a median of 8.6 years (688 000 person-years follow-up) starting in 2001. Predictive algorithms for 5-year incident stroke resulting in hospitalization were created and then validated in a similar 2007 survey of 28 605 respondents (median 4.2 years follow-up).

Results — We observed 3 236 incident stroke events (1 551 resulting in hospitalization; 1 685 in the community setting without hospital admission). The final algorithms were discriminating (C-stat: 0.85, men; 0.87, women) and well-calibrated (in 65 of 67 subgroups for men; 61 of 65 for women). An index was developed to summarize cumulative relative risk of incident stroke from health behaviours and stress. For men, each point on the index corresponded to a 12% relative risk increase (180% risk difference, lowest (0) to highest (9) scores). For women, each point corresponded to a 14% relative risk increase (340% difference, lowest (0) to highest (11) scores). Algorithms for secondary stroke outcomes (stroke resulting in death; classified as ischemic; excluding transient ischemic attack; and in the community setting) had similar health behaviour risk hazards.

Conclusion — Incident stroke can be accurately predicted using self-reported information focused on health behaviours. Risk assessment can be performed with population health surveys to support population health planning or outside of clinical settings to support patient-focused prevention.

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Keywords: Stroke Risk assessment Cardiovascular diseases

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