Higher Risk of Stroke in Women

June 21, 2007 — A new study using data from the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) shows the risk for stroke among US women between the ages of 45 and 54 years is more than double that of men the same age. Independent predictors of stroke risk in this age group included the presence of coronary artery disease and increased waist circumference, suggesting that poor risk-factor control in these women may be to blame for the increased risk. "Women aged 45 to 54 had twice the odds of having experienced stroke compared with men of the same age, and the transition from age 35 to 44 to 45 to 54 marks the steepest rise in stroke prevalence for women," lead author Amytis Towfighi, MD, from the Stroke Center and department of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Medscape. Their study also showed that from 1999 to 2004, stroke prevalence rates rose in women while they declined in men. The results are published online June 20 in Neurology. Their findings were presented earlier this year at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference 2007 and reported by Medscape at that time. Poor Risk-Factor Control? Although the majority of strokes occur in older age groups, those in midlife, between the ages of 35 and 64 years, are still at risk, Dr. Towfighi pointed out. Women under the age of 65 years have risk factors particular to their gender, including risks associated with pregnancy, the use of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, and a higher prevalence of migraines. "Understanding gender-specific differences in the frequency and predictors of stroke in midlife years is important, which is what prompted us to look into this," Dr. Towfighi said. For this study, they used NHANES data from 1999 to 2004 on 17,061 men and women to look at sex differences in stroke prevalence and identify independent risk predictors among middle-aged individuals. Stroke was identified through the in-home interview portion of the survey, where subjects were asked if they had ever been told by a physician that they'd had a stroke. Of the 17,061 men and women surveyed, 15,309 responded to the question about stroke (90%). Of these, 606, or 4%, reported having experienced a stroke, 51% of whom were men and 49% women. Based on these data, they found that women between 45 and 54 years had significantly higher odds of having had a stroke compared with men of the same age group.