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Lifetime stroke risk, related mortality, and related outcomes are worse in women than in men, yet most women do not recognize stroke as a substantial health threat. Investigators sent questionnaires about stroke recognition and perceptions of personal risk to women who visited a university hospital cardiology clinic. All had stroke risk factors such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery or other cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and atrial fibrillation (AF). Participants were asked to list stroke warning signs, modifiable risk factors, and personal risk factors and to compare their own personal stroke risk with that of other women on a 10-point scale.
Most of the 215 respondents (mean age, 63) were white, well educated, and earned…