Based on the AHA Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — Update
Facts about acute ischemic stroke

In 2008, the American Heart Association Statistics Subcommittee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee published "Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2008 Update"¹

Obtain the complete update

• Incidence
• Risk factors
• Risk prevention
• Aftermath
• Cost

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Incidence²

• Annually, about 795,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke
  • – Approximately 610,000 of these strokes are first attacks and about 185,000 are recurrent attacks
• On average, in the United States, every 40 seconds someone has a stroke
• Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, ranking only behind heart disease and cancer
• From 1995 to 2005, the stroke death rate fell 29.7%, and the actual number of stroke deaths declined 13.5%
• Before age 85, men are more likely than women to have a stroke; after age 85, the trend reverses
• Each year, about 55,000 more women than men have a stroke
• 87% of all strokes are ischemic. 10% are intracerebral hemorrhages, and 3% are subarachnoid hemorrhage strokes

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Risk factors^2,3

• In adults over 55 years of age, the lifetime risk for stroke is greater than 1 in 6. Women have a higher risk of stroke than men, which may be owing to women's survival advantage
• Blacks have a risk of first-ever stroke that is almost twice that of whites. The age-adjusted stroke rates in people 45 to 84 years of age are 6.6 per 1000 population in black men, 3.6 per 1000 in white men, 4.9 per 1000 in black women, and 2.3 per 1000 in white women

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Risk prevention^2,3

• Blood pressure is a powerful risk factor for stroke. People with blood pressure less than 120/80 mm Hg have about half the lifetime risk of stroke as those with hypertension
• The relative risk of stroke in heavy smokers (those smoking more than 40 cigarettes a day) is twice that of light smokers (those smoking less than 10 cigarettes a day). Stroke risk decreases significantly 2 years after cessation of cigarette smoking and is reduced to the level of nonsmokers by 5 years of abstinence
• Physical activity reduces stroke risk. The Physicians' Health Study showed a lower stroke risk among men who participated in vigorous exercise than among those who did not
• Data from the Women's Health Study, which examined stroke risk factors in more than 37,000 women aged 45 or older, suggests that a healthy lifestyle consisting of moderate alcohol consumption, regular exercise, a healthy diet, low body mass index, and abstinence from smoking was associated with a significantly reduced risk of total and ischemic stroke, but not of hemorrhagic stroke
• The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study — which included whites, blacks, and Hispanics, and women and men in an urban setting — showed a decrease in ischemic stroke risk associated with physical activity levels across all racial/ethnic and age groups and for each gender (OR 0.37)

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Aftermath

Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States³

• *
• Among ischemic stroke survivors at least 65 years of age.

Patients perceive severe stroke outcomes as similar to or worse than death⁴

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Cost

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