2002 to 2021 Saw Decline, Followed by Increase in Stroke Death Rates

THURSDAY, Aug. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- After declines in stroke death rates between 2002 and 2012, rates increased among men and women aged 45 to 64 years between 2012 and 2021, according to an August data brief published by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Sally C. Curtin, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, presents trends in stroke death rates among people ages 45 to 64 years from 2002 to 2022 using data from the National Vital Statistics System.

Curtin found that after a decline from 2002 to 2012, for adults ages 45 to 64 years, the stroke death rates increased 7 percent between 2012 and 2019 and increased an additional 12 percent through 2021 (20.2 to 21.7 to 24.4 per 100,000). In each region, stroke death rates increased for men from 2012 to 2020 and then declined or did not change significantly through 2022. For women, increases in stroke death rates were seen for all regions from 2012 to 2020, and the increase continued through 2022 in the Northeast. The highest stroke death rates among men in each region were seen for Black non-Hispanic men, with the highest rate in the South (65.7). The highest stroke death rates in each region were seen for Black women, with rates higher in the Midwest, South, and West versus the Northeast (41.0, 41.6, and 45.0, respectively, versus 26.9).

"Although the increases in stroke death rates started pre-COVID, the percentage increases in the rates were greater after 2019," Curtin writes. "The rate then declined for men and remained statistically unchanged for women through 2022."

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