depressive symptoms category. For all race and sex
groups, persons reporting high as compared with low
depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to
report a low level of nonrecreational physical activity,
less than high school education, and a history of diabetes.
White men and white women in the high depressive
symptoms category were more likely to be
current smokers. White women in the high depressive
symptom category were more likely to have a higher
BMI and a history of heart disease. Depressed blacks
more often reported a history of heart disease. All
other risk factors were comparable across depressive
symptoms categories.
Table 2 shows the number and percentage of respondents
and the number of stroke cases by race, sex,
and depressive symptoms category. Blacks had the
largest percentage of subjects reporting high depressive
symptoms (15.7%), followed by white women
(10.4%) and white men (5.6%). Blacks and white
women also had higher percentages of subjects reporting
an intermediate level of depressive symptoms
compared with white men. Age-adjusted incidence
rates are shown in Figure 1. For white men, white
women, and all black persons, the incidence rate for
stroke was highest for persons with high depressive
symptoms, followed by persons with intermediate and
then low depressive symptoms.
Table 3 shows the relative risks for stroke incidence
associated with each risk factor among all persons
aged 25 to 74 years. Among the continuous measures,