Cases Of A Type Of Stroke Are Increasing; Black People More Susceptible: Study

A certain type of stroke is on the rise and Black people are more susceptible to it, according to a recent study.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, found that the rate of a type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage has increased in the United States, particularly in older people and men.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage is said to be caused by bleeding in the space between the brain and the membrane that covers it. The bleeding is generally from a blood vessel bursting due to an aneurysm rupture, excessive blood pressure or trauma. However, the researchers excluded strokes caused by trauma in their study.

"Subarachnoid hemorrhages unrelated to trauma account for 5% to 10% of all strokes in the United States, and are often deadly," study author Fadar Oliver Otite of the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, said, according to SciTechDaily. "Not only did we find an increase in these strokes over recent years, but we also found the incidence was disproportionally higher and increasing in Black people while rates did not increase in people of other races and ethnicities."

For the study, the research team looked at data from approximately 40,000 people who were hospitalized for non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. More specifically, they reviewed state hospitalization records for New York and Florida from 2007 to 2017.

The team then arrived at yearly rates of the particular stroke using Census data. The rates were individually determined for men, women, different age groups, races and ethnicities.

The decade-long data showed that women had a rate of 13 cases per 100,000 people, while males had a rate of 10 cases for every 100,000 individuals. The average incidence of the stroke for all participants was 11 cases per 100,000 people.

The rate of occurrence also increased with time. It grew by 0.7% per year overall. For middle-aged men, the rise was 1.1%, with older men accounting for 2.3% of cases. In older women, the incidence increase was 0.7%, while in young women, the rate was slashed by 0.7%.

As for race and ethnicity, researchers found that the rate of occurrence of the stroke was higher in Black people, with an average of 15 cases per 100,000 individuals. This was higher when compared to non-Hispanic white people who logged an average of 10 cases.

Additionally, the incidence rate increased by 1.8% per year in Black people, while rates for Hispanic, Asian and non-Hispanic white people remained more or less the same.

"The incidence of this type of stroke is disproportionately higher, and increasing, in Black people, leading to a widening of the racial incidence gap," Otite said, as per the outlet.

"Previous studies have found Black people develop high blood pressure younger and are more likely to have an uncontrolled high blood pressure than non-Hispanic white people, so expanding efforts to control blood pressure may help reduce rates," Otite added.