FRIDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of stroke decreased significantly among whites, but not blacks, in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area from 1999 to 2005, according to research published online May 20 in Stroke.
Dawn O. Kleindorfer, M.D., of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and colleagues calculated race-specific and case-fatality rates of all first-ever strokes in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area during 1993 to 1994, and the calendar years 1999 and 2005, to examine trends in stroke incidence and fatality within a large biracial population. They used a sampling scheme to ascertain out-of-hospital cases.
The researchers found that from 1999 to 2005, the age-adjusted annual rate of ischemic stroke resulting in hospitalization changed from 189 to 167 per 100,000 overall, a drop of 11.6 percent; 180 to 154 per 100,000 among whites, a drop of 14.4 percent; and 263 to 275 per 100,000 among blacks, a rise of 4.6 percent, but not a significant change. In all study periods, there was a higher stroke incidence among blacks than whites, though case-fatality rates were similar between the two races.
"For the first time, we report a significant decrease in stroke incidence within our population, which is consistent with other reports in the literature. This decrease was found only among whites, which suggests a worsening of the racial disparity in stroke incidence," the authors write.
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