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• More Risk Factors, Less Access to Care Behind Higher Stroke Rates in U.S. 

A higher rate of risk factors and more barriers to health care may be among the reasons why stroke is more common in the United States than in Europe, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined 2004 data on 13,667 people in the United States and 30,120 people in 11 European countries, and found that American men were 61 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than European men, and American women were almost twice as likely as European women to have a stroke.

"Most of this gap [in stroke risk] is among relatively poor Americans who were, in our data, much more likely to have a stroke than poor Europeans, whereas the gap in stroke prevalence is less marked between rich Americans and rich Europeans," study author Mauricio Avendano, a research fellow in public health at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said in a prepared statement. . . .

"Many risk factors for stroke, including blood pressure and smoking, have generally increased among women but remained stable among men," Avendano said. "This may explain why the gap in stroke prevalence between men and women is less marked than before. In fact, in some age groups and populations such as France, women may have higher prevalence of stroke than men." . . .

The study was presented Friday at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference, in New Orleans.

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