Table 3. Summary risk estimates of the association between dairy foods and risk of stroke .

	N b	No. of cases	Risk estimate (95% CI)	Heterogeneity test			References
			REM	I 2 (%)	P	P a
Total dairy	19	29300	0.88(0.82-0.95)	63.1	0.00
Outcome						0.00
Incidence	8	13979	0.96(0.88-1.04)	49.7	0.05		[13, 15, 20, 21, 36, 43, 47, 49]
Mortality	11	15321	0.80(0.76-0.83)	0.00	0.66		[11, 16-18, 37, 41, 44, 45]
Location where the study was conducted
Europe	10	10985	0.96(0.89-1.04)	29.8	0.17	1	[11, 13, 20, 21, 36, 41, 45, 47, 49]
Asia	7	14109	0.79(0.75-0.82)	0.00	0.73	0.00	[16, 17, 37, 43, 44]
Others	2	4206	0.91(0.85-0.98)	0.00	0.68	0.57	[15, 18]
Sex						0.90
Male	7	9007	0.92(0.79-1.07)	68.5	0.00		[13, 15, 17, 36, 37, 41, 45]
Female	4	1021	0.78(0.66-0.91)	0.00	0.67		[17, 37, 41]
Quality
High	13	10343	0.89(0.85-0.94)	0.00	0.44	1	[11, 15, 17, 20, 21, 37, 41, 43, 44, 49]
Moderate	4	7731	1.01(0.84-1.21)	63.9	0.04	0.05	[13, 18, 36, 47]
Low	2	11226	0.79(0.75-0.83)	0.00	0.90	0.26	[16, 45]
Adjusting for 4 or more covariates (smoking, alcohol, total energy intake, BMI, physical activity and ≥3 other dietary variables) (0.10) a
Yes	14	16368	0.91(0.85-0.98)	49.1	0.02		[13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 36, 37, 41, 47, 49]
No	5	12932	0.79(0.75-0.83)	0.00	0.98		[11, 16, 43-45]
Fat content of dairy					0.62
Low fat	9	14689	0.94(0.90-0.98)	0.00	0.61		[13, 15, 18, 20, 41, 47, 49]
High fat	9	14689	0.95(0.91-1)	0.00	0.61		[13, 15, 18, 20, 41, 47, 49]

BMI: body mass index, REM: random effect model.

^a P value for meta-regression, and location where the study was conducted (Europe as the reference) and Quality (high as the reference) and sex (male as the reference).

^b N: number of results; 2 separate results (male and female) were available in 3 studies.^17,37,41