An analysis of stroke deaths in the United States from 1975 to 2019 finds both a dramatic decline and the potential for an important resurgence.
Stroke mortality (per 100,0000) plummeted from 88 to 31 for women and 112 to 39 for men between 1975 and 2019 in the United States.
However, barring further improvements in stroke prevention or treatment, the most recent figures demonstrate that total stroke fatalities will rise as millennials age. Age-adjusted stroke deaths per 100,000 people bottomed out in 2014 and climbed again during the last five years of the study period.
“This study didn’t identify a cause for this trend, but other research suggests the main culprits are increasing rates of obesity and diabetes.”
The analysis used a comprehensive death-certificate database to identify virtually every adult under the age of 85 who died from a stroke during the 44 years—4,332,220 deaths in all.
It was the first stroke-death analysis to divide patients by their year of birth (cohort) and the first to identify the steady rise in age-adjusted ischemic stroke risk from the late 1950s to the early 1990s.
- Stroke fatality rates have fallen more for ischemic strokes, which occur when blood vessels to the brain are blocked, than hemorrhagic strokes, which occur when blood vessels leak or burst. The ischemic stroke fatality rate fell roughly 80% over the study period, while the hemorrhagic stroke fatality rate fell roughly 65%.
- The disparity between male and female stroke fatality rates diminishes as patient age increase. At age 55, men are more than twice as likely as women to suffer a fatal stroke, but the disparity in the rates of fatal stroke is virtually identical at age 85.