High blood pressure and diabetes are known risk factors for stroke, but now a new study shows that the amount of risk may decrease as people age. The study is published in the January 18, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“High blood pressure and diabetes are two important risk factors for stroke that can be managed by medication, decreasing a person’s risk,” said study author George Howard, DrPH, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. “Our findings show that their association with stroke risk may be substantially less at older ages, yet other risk factors do not change with age. These differences in risk factors imply that determining whether a person is at high risk for stroke may differ depending on their age.”
The study involved 28,235 people who had never had a stroke. Of this group, 41% were Black and 59% were white. Participants were followed for an average of 11 years.
At the start of the study, participants were interviewed and given physical exams to assess risk factors. Risk factors included high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, atrial fibrillation, heart disease and left ventricular hypertrophy which is the thickening of the heart’s left ventricle. Because of the well-known higher stroke risk in Black people, race was also considered as part of the assessed risk factors, Howard added.
Researchers followed up with participants every six months, confirming strokes by reviewing medical records.
During the study, there were 1,405 strokes over 276,074 person-years. Person-years represent both the number of people in the study and the amount of time each person spends in the study.
