Strokes increasing among young people
A new study has found that strokes may be becoming more common among younger people. Experts speculate the increase may be due to a rise in risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol.
Lead researcher Dr. Brett Kissela, professor and vice-chair of neurology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said he was motivated to study stroke rates in young people after observing a disturbing trend at his own hospital.
“In clinical observation, looking at the patients we were caring for in the hospital, we were seeing this trend of stroke patients being younger,” Kissela said.
Kissela’s observations were confirmed in a larger population study of people living in Ohio and Kentucky. He and his colleagues looked at stroke rates in people between ages of 20 and 54 between the years of 1993 and 1994, and between 1999 and 2005.