A new study provides evidence that your risk of suffering a stroke is linked to the number of fast food restaurants in the neighborhood where you live. Even after controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors, researchers at the University of Michigan showed that stroke risk increases with each additional fast food restaurant located in a neighborhood.

Presented this week at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference, the study found that, in one Texas county, residents who lived in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of fast food restaurants had a 13 percent higher risk of suffering an ischemic stroke than residents living in neighborhoods with the lowest number of such restaurants. Ischemic strokes are caused by a blockage in an artery that supplies the brain and are responsible for more than 85 percent of all strokes.

The data also show that a person’s relative risk of stroke increased by about 1 percent for each fast food restaurant located in their neighborhood.

The researchers examined data from the ongoing Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) project, which tracks strokes occurring in Nueces County, Texas. They used the 64 U.S. Census Bureau tracts in Nueces County as proxies for neighborhoods. Nueces County has 262 fast-food restaurants, defined by the researchers as having at least two of four characteristics: rapid food service, takeout business, limited or no wait staff and payment required before receiving food.

Despite the clear association, the researchers stress that their findings do no prove that fast-food restaurants raise the risk of stroke. While people may assume that being surrounded by fast food restaurants may makes you more likely to eat the food at these restaurants whose menus offer items loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat, it is possible that fast food restaurants are just a sign of an unhealthy neighborhood.

It is also possible that neighborhoods with lots of fast food restaurants tend to lack more healthy options, or that something completely different in these neighborhoods is associated with poor health. In any case, the study suggests that additional spending on stroke prevention programs should target neighborhoods with a lot of fast food restaurants.

For more information about how to eat healthy, consult the Healia Health Guide to Weight Management. To learn more about strokes and stroke risk, join the Healia Health Community for stroke or visit the American Stroke Association Web site.

_{Photo: ebruli, Flickr, Creative Commons}