Loading...
As the mean age of the U.S. population increases, is stroke incidence also increasing? To study long-term trends in stroke incidence and severity, researchers analyzed data from 9152 Framingham Heart and Offspring Study participants who were age 55 or older and free of prevalent stroke upon enrollment. Trends were analyzed across three time periods: 1950–1977, 1978–1989, and 1990–2004.
Of 1030 incident strokes during 174,917 person-years of follow-up, 56% occurred in women and 61% were thrombotic. Over the three time periods, the age-adjusted annual incidence of first stroke declined nonsignificantly in both sexes, although more in men (from 19.5% to 14.5%) than in women (from 18.0% to 16.1%).
Most stroke risk factors became less prevalent ov…