Stroke Impacts Blacks, Hispanics More

Aug. 31, 2006 -- After stroke, quality of life often suffers, especially for blacks and Hispanics.

The CDC's Jipan Xie, MD, PhD, and colleagues report that news in the journal Stroke.

"These findings support the importance of preventing stroke and minimizing its impact on survivors, especially among racial and ethnic minority populations," Xie's team writes.

Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death for U.S. adults. It's also a major cause of disability for older adults.

Study after study has shown that quality of life tends to suffer after stroke. But Xie's team went one step farther.

The researchers culled data from national surveys, done in 2000 and 2002, that had a combined total of more than 39,000 adult participants.

The goal: Get an in-depth, national look at quality of life among stroke survivors.

A total of 1,040 participants said they were stroke survivors. They answered questions about these topics:

• Physical health
• Mental healthMental health
• Health utility (mobility, pain, anxiety, depressiondepression, self-care, ability to do routine activities)

They also rated their own health, visualizing it as a thermometer with best imaginable health at the top and worst imaginable health at the bottom.

Stroke survivors rated all of those areas lower than people who hadn't had strokes.

Stroke survivors' physical health ratings were 8% lower, mental health was 4% lower, health utility was 7% lower, and self-rated health was 7% lower than people who hadn't had strokes.

Quality-of-life ratings were poorer in black and Hispanic stroke survivors than white stroke survivors, the study shows.

The study doesn't identify the source of the racial pattern. Poorer access to quality medical care in minority groups may have played a role, note Xie and colleagues.

They call for "culturally appropriate interventions" to help racial and ethnic minority groups prevent and cope with stroke.