New cases of a rare and often deadly type of stroke are growing at a faster rate among young and middle-aged people than older adults, new research suggests.
The research shows an 11 per cent increase in haemorrhagic or ICH strokes over the past decade and a half.
The findings have been published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal, Stroke.
Dr Karen Furie is chief of neurology at Rhode Island Hospital and chair of the department of neurology at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School.
She was not involved in the research.
Dr Furie said:
“From a public health perspective, these results are troubling and indicate risk factors are not being well managed in young adults in the U.S.
“Earlier onset of this disease is very alarming and indicates we need to be more aggressive with primary prevention.”
Researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital used aggregated nationwide data from 803,230 ICH hospitalisations.
They calculated the ICH rate over five consecutive three-year periods between 2004 and 2018.
Participants were divided into sub-groups of 18-44 years; 45-64 years; 65-74 years; and 75 years and older.
The researchers found an overall 11 per cent increase in ICH rates over a 15-year period, with the haemorrhagic strokes increasing at a fast rate among those under 65 than those aged 75 and above.
The ICH rates were 43 per cent higher in men than women.
Among those who had ICH strokes, the percentage of people who had high blood pressure rose from 74.5 per cent to 86.4 per cent over the course of the study.
High blood pressure and increasing age are both major risk factors of haemorrhagic strokes.
The findings are alarming, Furie said, because they suggest that blood pressure is so poorly controlled that young people risk losing the best years of their lives.
Failure to reverse the trend ‘could be devastating’, she added.
The researcher said:
“We’re talking about decades of disability that could be a burden for the individual, their family and society as a whole.”
Haemorrhagic strokes occur when blood vessels in the brain rupture and bleed.
These strokes are relatively rare compared to ischemic strokes, accounting for 10 to 15 per cent of strokes worldwide.
In 2020, an estimated 18.9 million people across the global had a haemorrhagic stroke, according to the AHA’s most recent report.
