Overall rates of stroke decreasing, but racial inequity worsens for Black Americans, new study finds

Strokes in adults dropped, but racial inequity persists, according to a new study, which found Black adults are more likely to have strokes compared to white adults.

Although rates of strokes in the adult population have generally decreased over the last several decades, the racial inequity gap persists, according to a new study in Neurology, which found that Black adults are still more likely to have strokes compared to white adults, and at younger ages.

Researchers analyzed data on patients with their first stroke in Ohio and Kentucky from 1993 to 2015, and found that overall, the rates of strokes have decreased. However, Black adults became more likely to have their first stroke at a younger age than white adults - the average age for a Black adult decreased from 66 to 62 years of age, and for white adults only decreased from 72 to 71. Black adults remained 52 to 83% more likely to have first-time strokes than white adults for all time points of the study, especially for younger adults aged 20 to 44.

"Black adults had higher rates of stroke in all of the study periods, and unfortunately the difference in the higher rates in Black versus white adults did not improve over time," said Dr. Tracy Madsen, associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown University.

Strokes are leading causes of long-term disability and death, and from 2018-2019 cost the U.S. health care system nearly $56.5 billion, according to the CDC.