Table 2.

Eligibility criteria for study selection

Criterion	Description
Study population	Adults adhering to the Mediterranean diet (with comparisons to those following other dietary patterns or general populations)
Exposure of interest	Adherence to the Mediterranean diet, assessed through dietary questionnaires or other validated measures
Reported estimates	Studies reporting relative risk (RR), hazard ratios, or odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for stroke risk, or where these could be calculated from provided data
Outcome	Incidence of stroke, including subtypes such as ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke
Study design	Observational studies, including cohort or case–control designs. In cases of duplicate studies from the same population, the study with the longest follow-up period was included