Stroke Risk Higher for Chinese than Caucasians: Study

According to a new study, Chinese people are at higher risk of having a stroke than Caucasians.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that a stroke is when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. Symptoms of a stroke include sudden dizziness, numbness or weakness especially on one side of the body, loss of balance or co-ordination.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least one person in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds. Every four minutes someone dies of stroke in the country.

"While stroke is the second most-common cause of death worldwide, in China it is the leading cause of death and adult disability. The global impact of stroke in the decades ahead is predicted to be greatest in middle income countries, including China. It is important to gain a better understanding of how stroke affects different populations as we try to reduce the burden of the disease worldwide," said Chung-Fen Tsai, MD, with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and lead author of the study, according to a news release.

For the study, researchers reviewed all the studies that were conducted in China and Taiwan from 1990. A total of 404,254 Chinese were part of the research. The researchers then looked at 10 studies on stroke conducted on Caucasians which included a total of 1,885,067 people.

Researchers found that the Chinese had a slightly elevated risk of stroke when compared with Caucasians; there were about 205 to 584 strokes per 100,000 Chinese people compared with 170 to 335 strokes per 100,000 Caucasian people aged 45 to 74 years.

Chinese people also had strokes early- at about 66 to 70 years when compared with Caucasians who generally had their first stroke at age 72-76 years. Additionally, Chinese people were more likely to have an  intracerebral hemorrhage, where there is bleeding in the brain due to a damaged blood vessel.

The study is published in the journal Neurology®.