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Stroke risk linked to family history

Category: General Health

Results of a recently published study suggest that people whose parents have had a stroke, especially by the time they were 65 years of age, are at a considerably increased risk of suffering a similar episode in their lifetime.

Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine analyzed the data of more than 3,400 people who originally participated in the Framingham Heart Study, and compared it to the medical information of their children some 40 years later. The parent group had reported 106 strokes by age 65, and the participants suffered 128 strokes over the course of the study.

After adjusting for common risk factors, including high blood pressure and smoking, the researchers found that second-generation participants who had a parent who had a stroke by the time they were 65 years of age were twice as likely suffer the same event at any age and four times as likely to do so by age 65.

"So, a positive family history should motivate one towards better control of blood pressure, blood sugar, quitting smoking, exercise and keeping an ideal weight," concluded study author Sudha Seshadri.