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Among middle-aged and older women, radon exposure is associated with a moderately increased risk for stroke, according to a study published online Jan. 31 in Neurology.
Sophie F. Buchheit, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study of postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years at baseline in the Women’s Health Initiative to examine the association between home radon exposure and risk for stroke. Exposures were measured as two-day, indoor, lowest living-level average radon concentrations in picocuries per liter (pCi/L).
During a mean follow-up of 13.4 years, 6,979 incident strokes were identified among 158,910 women without stroke at baseline. The researchers found that at radon concentrations of <2, 2 to 4, and >4 pCi/L, incidence rates were 333, 343, and 349 strokes per 100,000 woman-years. Higher covariate-adjusted risks for incident stroke were seen for women living at concentrations of 2 to 4 and >4 versus <2 pCi/L (hazard ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.06 [0.99 to 1.13] and 1.14 [1.05 to 1.22], respectively). Stroke risk was significantly increased at concentrations ranging from 2 to 4 pCi/L, which is below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Radon Action Level for mitigation of 4 pCi/L. The associations were slightly stronger for ischemic than hemorrhagic stroke, but were robust in sensitivity analyses.
“Confirmation would present a potential opportunity to affect public health by addressing a pervasive environmental risk factor for stroke and thereby merit reconsideration of extant radon policy,” the authors write.
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