Black, young adults: Greater stroke risk

U.S. researchers say there is an urgent need to reduce stroke risk factors among young African-Americans.

The study, published online in Neuroepidemiology, finds blacks bear a disproportionate burden of disease, disability and death from strokes.

In fact, it’s clear that the gap emerges even at relatively young ages — among adults hospitalized for strokes in their 20s and 30s — and widens with increasing age, study lead author Elizabeth Barnett Pathak of the University of Southern Florida College of Public Health College said in a statement.

It points toward an urgent need for primary prevention of hypertension, obesity and other stroke risk factors among African-Americans to eliminate disparities in stroke.

The researchers examined more than 16,000 cases of adults between the ages of 25-49 years hospitalized for stroke in Florida from 2001-06 and found:

– The age-adjusted stroke hospitalization rate for blacks was three times higher than for whites or Hispanics.

– The death rate for black patients was 15 percent higher than for whites. Hispanic patients were less likely than whites to die in the hospital.

– Black patients were more likely to have high blood pressure, morbid obesity or drug abuse. High cholesterol, alcohol abuse or cigarette smoking was found more in white patients.