Table 1. Characteristics of the included studies.
| Author | Year | Country | N (F/M) | Mean age | Study | Disease | Follow-up time | Measure methods | Cut-off value | Estimate | Adjusted HR/OR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prospective studies | |||||||||||
| Tzoulaki | 2007 | UK | 1592 (783/809) | 64.9 | The Edinburgh Artery Study | Stroke | mean 17 yrs | ELISA | tertile | HR | Yes |
| Wannamethee | 2012 | UK | 3358 (0/3358) | 68.4 | The British Regional Heart Study | Stroke | mean 9 yrs | ELISA | tertile/per SD | HR | Yes |
| Zakai | 2017 | USA | 1750 (—/—) | — | The REGARDS Study | Stroke | median 5.8 yrs | ITA | quintile | HR | Yes |
| Di Castelnuovo | 2014 | Italy | 832 (550/282) | — | The EPICOR Study | Stroke/HS/IS | mean 9 yrs | ITA | quartile/per SD | HR | Yes |
| Folsom | 2016 | USA | 11415 (6632/4783) | 59.8 | The ARIC Study | Stroke/HS/IS | median 18 yrs | ITA | quintile/per SD | HR | Yes |
| Smith | 2005 | UK | 2208 (0/2208) | 56.9 | The Caerphilly Study | IS | median 13 yrs | ELISA | tertile | HR | Yes |
| Zakai-2 | 2017 | USA | 1052 (530/522) | 65.1 | The REGARDS Study | HS | median 5.8 yrs | ITA | tertile/per SD | HR | Yes |
| Case-control studies | |||||||||||
| Anzej | 2007 | Slovenia | 90 (55/35) | 38.5 | — | AIS | — | ITA | — | OR | NR |
| Kaplan | 2008 | USA | 1944 (1944/0) | — | The WHI observational study | AIS | — | ITA | — | OR | Yes |
| Shi | 2014 | China | 214 (90/124) | 67.4 | — | AIS | — | ITA | quartile | OR | Yes |
N (F/M): number of patients (Female/Male), The REGARDS Study: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study, The EPICOR Study: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Italy Cohort Study, The ARIC Study: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, The WHI observational study: The Women's Health Initiative observational study, HS: hemorrhagic stroke, IS: ischemic stroke, AIS: acute ischemic stroke, yrs: years, ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, ITA: immunoturbidimetric assay, SD: standard deviation, HR: hazard ratio, OR: odds ratio, NR: not reported.