Dairy foods might be inversely associated with the risk of stroke.

2014-03-07

This meta-analysis summarises the evidence from prospective cohort studies on the link between dairy foods and the risk of stroke.

Eighteen separate results from fifteen prospective cohort studies, with 28,138 stroke events among 764,635 participants, were included in the review. Total dairy (RR: 0.88), low-fat dairy (0.91), fermented milk (0.80) and cheese (0.94) were significantly associated with a reduced risk of stroke.

On the contrary, whole/high-fat dairy, non-fermented milk, butter and cream were not significantly associated with a risk of stroke. The association is also stronger for deaths by stroke than for incidence, and for studies conducted in Asia. Gender has no influence on the results.