According to a study published in, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, rates of one type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage have increased in older people and men in recent years. Such strokes also happen to black people stroke risk at a disproportionately higher risk rate compared to people of other races and ethnicities.
A subarachnoid hemorrhage is when bleeding occurs between the membrane that covers the brain and the space between them. This bleeding is typically caused by a broken blood vessel. This kind of stroke may result from an aneurysm rupture, excessive blood pressure, or trauma. For this study, researchers looked exclusively at those not induced by trauma.
According to study author Fadar Oliver Otite, M.D., Sc.M., of the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, “Subarachnoid hemorrhages unrelated to trauma account for 5% to 10% of all strokes in the United States, and are typically fatal.” Not only did we discover an increase in these strokes in recent years, but we also discovered that black people had a disproportionately higher incidence and rising rates of strokes than those of other races and ethnicities.
When researchers evaluated state hospitalization statistics for New York and Florida, they found 39,475 patients who were hospitalized for a non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage between 2007 and 2017. The annual rates of this type of stroke in those states were then determined using Census data, and the rates for men, women, different age groups, races, and ethnicities were compared over time.
Over the course of the 10-year trial, researchers discovered that there were 11 instances of this kind of stroke per 100,000 participants on average. With 13 instances per 100,000 individuals, rates were higher for women than for men. Age also led to an increase in incidence. Men in their middle years experienced an average of four instances per 100,000 people, whereas men aged 65 and older experienced an average of 22 cases. Overall, the number of cases rose by an average of 0.7% each year. The number of cases rose the most among middle-aged men (1.1%), followed by older men (2.3%), older women (0.7%), and young women (0.7%).
Researchers discovered that when comparing incidence by race and ethnicity, Black people stroke risk had a higher rate—an average of 15 cases per 100,000 people—than non-Hispanic white people, who had a rate of 10.
While the rates for Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic white people did not alter over time, the incidence climbed by 1.8% annually among black people.
Black people experience a significantly higher and growing rate of this form of stroke, which is extending the racial incidence gap, according to Otite. “Since black people are more prone than non-Hispanic white people to develop high blood pressure earlier in life and to have uncontrolled high blood pressure, increasing blood pressure control efforts may help lower rates. The causes most likely also include systemic racism and other socioeconomic problems. Multifaceted treatments aimed at stroke risk factors and socioeconomic inequality would be needed to address racial disparities. ”
The inability of the researchers to distinguish between strokes brought on by aneurysms and those not brought on by aneurysms, which would have provided more insight, was a study limitation.
