The Association Between Hay Fever and Stroke in a Cohort of Middle Aged and Elderly Adults

Abstract

Background: Asthma has been linked to stroke, but it is unknown if hay fever is related to stroke. This study was designed to investigate if there is an association between a reported history of hay fever and stroke during a 4.4-year study period.Methods: Analysis was performed of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, a cohort of middle aged and elderly adults. We examined the association of a reported history of hay fever to the development of stroke.Results: There were 9272 participants meeting our criteria, of which 125 had strokes. Of those with a history of hay fever, 2.2% had a stroke. Of those without a history of hay fever, 1.25% had a stroke. Participants with a history of hay fever had an unadjusted hazard ratio of 1.72 (95% CI, 1.08 -2.27) for stroke versus participants without hay fever. Risk of stroke remained significant (hazard ratio, 1.87 [95% CI, 1.17-2.99]) after controlling for age, sex, race, smoking status, body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, alcohol use, and hyperlipidemia.Conclusion: A history of hay fever seems to be a risk factor for stroke, and this association may be an area for future research and intervention.

A Typical Day in the Family Medicine Office

“…Turning to original research reports, Matheson et al 2 extend their previous work 14 on the association between stroke and allergic respiratory conditions. We do not think that most physicians or patients have thought there would be such an association.…”

Machine Learning Applications for Earth Observation

“…asthma, hay fever, and allergic rhinitis (Oswalt and Marshall, 2008;Howard and Levetin, 2014). It is interesting that a variety of non-respiratory issues such as strokes (Low et al, 2006), and surprisingly, even suicide and attempted suicide (Matheson et al, 2008) have an association with the daily concentration of atmospheric particulates. However, so far, there is no defined threshold amount of pollen known to trigger allergy for sensitive individuals (Voukantsis et al, 2010).…”

Record-Setting Usage and New Technological Opportunities

“…8 Two of 4 case reports are from US military family medicine programs. 6,8 Perhaps the most fascinating new idea in this issue is from Matheson et al, 3 who report that hay fever or allergies may be associated with stroke and postulate that inflammation is the likely reason. Many physicians are probably unaware of the potential association of cefdinir with "bloody stools."…”

“…In the first study, Lutfiyya et al 2 used the National Survey of Children's Health data to reveal that poverty is associated with higher childhood body mass index through influences of unsafe neighborhoods and less access to healthy foods; the second study examined data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. 3 Other methodologies include an observational study, 4 focus groups of primary care physicians, 5 and a cross national border study of depression. 1 These articles include new insights on common problems, 6 uncommon presentations of common illnesses, 7 and uncommon problems presenting as common symptoms.…”