We examined the prospective relationship between
depressive symptomatology and stroke incidence
among 6095 white and black men and women aged 25
to 74 years. The findings of this large, nationally representative
study lend additional support to a significant
association between depressive symptoms and
subsequent stroke incidence. After adjustment for established
stroke risk factors (ie, age, sex, race, SBP,
education, smoking status, BMI, alcohol use, nonrecreational
physical activity, serum cholesterol level,
history of diabetes, and history of heart disease), individuals
with a high level of depressive symptoms had
a 50% to 160% increased risk of stroke during the
subsequent 22 years compared with subjects with low
levels of depressive symptoms. The consistency of the
significance of these associations was observed across
the race-sex strata of white men, white women, and all
blacks. Blacks had an increased risk of stroke associated
with high depressive symptomatology in comparison
with whites. In general, the risk-adjusted models
did not substantially attenuate risks in comparison
with age-adjusted models.