Effect modification of age and hypertension on cancer and prevalence of self-reported stroke - A cross-sectional study

The objective of this study was to examine the effect modification of age on the relationship between cancer and prevalence of self-reported stroke. We used cross-sectional data from the 2015-2016 iteration of the Canadian Community Health Survey. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to assess the association between cancer and self-reported stroke. Covariates were assessed for effect modification using the maximum likelihood estimation method. We analyzed 86,809 subjects; the prevalence of self-reported stroke was 1.11%. The odds ratio for the association between cancer and self-reported stroke was 1.26 (95% CI 0.98-1.61) after adjusting for age, sex, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, education, and household income. Age and hypertension were found to be effect modifiers, and the association between cancer and self-reported stroke was stronger in younger adults and in those without hypertension. These results suggest that cancer-associated strokes may have unique underlying mechanisms compared to conventional strokes.