Here we investigate the possible mediating effects of physical inactivity (PHYS: a two-level variable with levels ‘mainly inactive’ coded as 1 and mainly active coded as 0) on incidence of first stroke through waist–hip ratio (WHR) [waist measurement (cm)]/[hip measurement in (cm)], ratio between measured apolipoprotein-B and apolipoprotein-A (APOB) (these are proteins in the blood responsible for lipid metabolism) and prior clinical diagnosis of high blood pressure (HBP). Here, APOB is linked to hypertensive disorder.