It’s Not All Good In The Neighborhood: Where You Live Can Be A Stroke Risk Factor
“These results are consistent with other evidence showing that factors associated with living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods contribute to stroke risk. However, it is difficult to separate the influence of neighborhood characteristics from characteristics of the individuals living in the neighborhood,” Howard said. “Many social and behavioral risk factors, such as smoking and physical inactivity, are more prevalent in the less advantaged neighborhoods. Greater attention needs to be paid to risk factor management strategies in disadvantaged neighborhoods in order to make a difference in preventing stroke on an individual level.”
The current study looked at measures of the neighborhood advantage where people live to determine whether these factors contributed to future stroke risk. Data came from the REGARDS study, a national random sample of the general population with more people selected from the stroke belt and about half black, half white.
The study involved 24,875 people with an average age of 65 who had not had a stroke at the start of the study. The participants were divided into four neighborhood groups, ranging from lowest level of advantage to the highest. The participants were followed for an average of seven and a half years. During that time, 929 people had a stroke.
This study has advantages over other studies in that it includes individuals of low, middle, upper-middle and high individual wealth across 1,833 urban and rural counties in the United States, and a large number of both blacks and whites. Other stroke risk factors were measured prior to the stroke.