The total weight of the five main risk factors for stroke – hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity and high cholesterol – plummeted among the U.S. population from 1990 to 2010. The percentage of cases of diseases associated with them fell from 73% to 41% (The New England Journal of Medicine, May 25, 2017). The decline, however, was much more pronounced among whites than blacks (see chart). Among the Caucasian portion of the sample of 15,350 adults who were monitored for two decades, hypertension and smoking were the two risk factors for stroke that were down significantly. Among Americans of African origin, the drop in these two factors was not as substantial. Being overweight, which in the 1990s had an insignificant impact on the incidence of strokes, is more associated with the occurrence of the problem today, especially among blacks. “However, because they are predisposed to developing hypertension and diabetes, obesity is a major risk factor to be prevented and treated for everyone,” cautions cardiologist Wilson Nadruz of the University of Campinas (Unicamp), the principal author of the study, performed in a partnership with colleagues from the United States.
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