Stroke rates rose 83% in younger adults and fell 27% in older ones |
Stroke has been one of public health’s quieter successes in the United States, but a new study published shows how unevenly that success has landed. In the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region, stroke rates among older adults fell by more than a quarter between 1993 and 2020. Among adults aged 20 to 54, the rate nearly doubled, from 33.9 to 62.2 cases per 100,000 person-years.
“Even as the total number declined, the people who were having strokes were getting younger and younger,” said senior author David Robinson of the University of Cincinnati.
The region’s 1.4 million residents broadly mirror the US population. Almost all of the rise came from ischemic strokes, which are caused by a blocked blood vessel rather than a bleed. By 2020, 3 in 5 younger stroke patients had high blood pressure, 1 in 4 had diabetes, and 2 in 5 had documented substance use, mostly cannabis. Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, had also become more common.
This new study can’t say which of these changes matters most. The researchers had no comparable data on people who didn’t have strokes, so the shifts may simply mirror the wider population. Even in 2020, younger adults’ stroke rate was still about a seventh of that found in older adults.
For more on why younger adults so often go unscreened, and the one screening step Robinson would put first, jump to “Stroke: Why are rates rising among younger adults?”
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