Negative Life Events and Their Association With Stroke and Total Cerebrovascular Disease Risk: Results From a 10‐Year Prospective Cohort Study

Previous studies showed that negative life events (NLEs) were positively associated with stroke. However, little was known about such associations in total cerebrovascular disease and the prospective evidence in the Chinese population. We aim to investigate the association of NLEs with cerebrovascular disease in this study. We used longitudinal data from China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), which was conducted in Huixian, Henan, China. Cox regression models were used to calculate the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of 60,356 participants were finally included, of which 12,349 had reported cerebrovascular disease (8643 for stroke and 7670 for ischaemic stroke). Participants who experienced NLEs had a higher likelihood of cerebrovascular disease (HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.03-1.18). For specific events, the HRs of family conflicts, job loss/retirement, and violence were 1.30 (95% CI 1.07-1.59), 2.24 (95% CI 1.20-4.18), and 1.50 (95% CI 1.05-2.14) for ischaemic stroke. Exposure to economic-related events was associated with a 29.9% increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, 36.1% for all stroke, and 39.0% for ischaemic stroke among males. Various associations can be observed in different age groups. NLEs were associated with a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease and the associations could be observed in specific types of events within different gender and age groups in Chinese adults. Targeted prevention for populations with high stress levels should be performed by health institutions to control the cerebrovascular disease burden.