Data analysis has revealed that moderate aerobic activity can considerably reduce the risk of stroke.

The large-scale study, carried out by the Prevention Research Centre at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, showed that the risk of stroke, for both men and women, could b lowered by up to 40 per cent if thirty minutes or more moderate aerobic activity, such as a brisk walk, were undertaken five days a week.

Study author, and director of the research centre, Steven Hooker said that the study was the first to suggest a significant independent link between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and fatal and nonfatal stroke in men and nonfatal stroke in women.

Stroke, which occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen, is Australia’s second single greatest killer and a leading cause of disability. Every year Australians suffer 53,000 new and recurrent strokes. Men are more likely than women to suffer a stroke, though strokes still kill more women than breast cancer.

Data from over 60,000 participants, of whom three quarters were men and one quarter women, was gathered and analysed for the 30-year study. During the study period, 863 people (692 men and 171 women) had strokes.

The study showed that men in the top 25 per cent of CRF (as gauged by a treadmill test at the outset of the study) had a 40 per cent lower risk of stroke than men in the bottom 25 per cent. Women in the top 25 per cent displayed a 43 per cent lower stroke risk than their counterparts in the lower 25 per cent.

Those in the middle ranges also showed decreased stroke risk; ‘We found that a low-to-moderate amount of aerobic fitness for men and women across the whole adult age spectrum would be enough to substantially reduce stroke risk’ said Hooker.