Rates of stroke rising among the under 50’s

New research from the University of Oxford shows that younger people are at greater risk of stroke.  The researchers found that in the past decade the numbers of individuals in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s suffering a stroke has risen by a fifth.

The research published in the BMJ analyzed data from 800,000 adults in England that were admitted to hospital with acute stroke and those who died from a stroke between 2001 and 2010.  Researchers found that the overall death rates from stroke (which occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is cut off) over the same period decreased by 55%. 

Vanessa Smith, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation said, “It’s really good news that stroke deaths are decreasing overall and this is testament to improvements in care and pioneering medical research that has revolutionised treatments.  It is alarming however to see that the number of younger people having strokes is on the rise.  We should treat findings like these as a warning sign that we cannot get complacent and more needs to be done to understand why we are seeing this trend.”