Stroke is one of the biggest health concerns in the world, and stroke incidence is rising in developing countries. Modifiable risk factors are responsible for up to 80% of strokes, but it is not clear whether these are more prevalent in developing regions to explain the higher incidence. Identifying the most prevalent risk factors could potentially allow healthcare systems to plan the most effective interventions to reduce stroke risk overall. 

Participants in the RIBURST were grouped by country into developed, developing and economies in transition. Data about diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption was collected. The proportion of respondents with these risk factors for New Zealand were compared against the other regions.

Respondents in NZ has significantly lower smoking rates (10.4%) compared to developed (19.8%), developing (25.4%) and transitional countries (23.9%) (p<0.05). NZ participants reported higher rates of fruit and vegetable consumption (53.4%) than those in developed (37.7%), developing (25.2%) and transitional countries (23.5%) (p<0.05). NZ participants were more likely to be physically active (74.6%) than those in developed (62.6%), developing (58.7%) and transitional countries (44.9%) (p<0.05). Alcohol consumption was significantly higher in NZ (23.7%) than in developed (14.9%), developing (7%) and transitional economies (10.7%) (p<0.05).

Comparing risk factor prevalence provides good insight towards what preventative interventions should be prioritised, and gives researchers the opportunity to assess what programmes have been successfully implemented in other countries to maximise the chances of achieving risk reduction. Further analyses with country specific risk factor prevalence needs to be conducted to enable more accurate comparisons.

DIFFERENCES IN MODIFIABLE STROKE RISK PREVALENCE – NZ VS THE WORLD: AN UPDATE FROM THE RIBURST STUDY