The association between cerebrovascular disease and smoking: a case-control study.

A retrospective case-control study was carried out to examine the relationship between cigarette smoking and cerebrovascular disease occurrence. Cases were obtained from the University of California-American Heart Association, San Diego Stroke Data Bank, and controls from selected Veterans Administration and University of California, San Diego, outpatient departments. When cigarette smoking was dichotomously coded into categories of low and high lifetime exposure, consistent significant positive associations were found with cerebrovascular disease occurrence in both bivariate and multivariate analysis when controlling for blood pressure. These associations, however, were not found when smoking was categorized as smoker, ex-smoker, and non-smoker. No association was found between passive smoking and cerebrovascular disease. The results indicate that a cumulative lifetime exposure to active cigarette smoking is directly associated with cerebrovascular disease.