High blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and heart disease account for half of black-white stroke disparity

Stopafib: By Peggy Noonan – February 29, 2012

Summary: Stroke deaths have dropped dramatically in recent years, but a black-white racial disparity remains. High blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and heart disease were found to be responsible for about half of this disparity, but the other half remains a mystery.

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Although the total number of stroke deaths in the U.S. declined by more than 50 percent between 1978 and 2006, significant racial disparities in stroke deaths remain.

A goal set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aimed to eliminate health disparities by 2010 but efforts to accomplish that goal have been “strikingly unsuccessful,” say the coauthors of a new study, Traditional Risk Factors as the Underlying Cause of Racial Disparities in Stroke: Lessons From the Half-Full (Empty?) Glass. Read More