The Isfahan cohort study: Rationale, methods and main findings

person-years for women. The respective risk of ischemic stroke was 2.3 (1.7–3.0), 2.3 (1.6–3.3) and 2.3 (1.5–3.2) per 1000 person-years. The risk of IHD was approximately 3.5-fold higher in the presence of hypertension, followed by diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia with near 2.5- and twofold higher risk, respectively. This cohort provides confirmatory evidence of the ethnic differences in the magnitude of the impact of various risk factors on cardiovascular events. The differences may be due to varying absolute risk levels among populations and the existing ethnic disparities for using western risk equations to local requirements. Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 25 November 2010; doi:10.1038/jhh.2010.99