Stroke burden in Mexican Americans: the impact of mortality following stroke

To estimate ethnic-specific all-cause mortality risk following ischemic stroke and to compare mortality risk by ethnicity.

DATA from the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi Project, a population-based stroke surveillance study, were used. Stroke cases between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2002 were identified from emergency department (ED) and hospital sources (n = 1,234). Deaths for the same period were identified from the surveillance of stroke cases, the Texas Department of Health, the coroner, and the Social Security Death Index. Ethnic-specific all-cause cumulative mortality risk was estimated at 28 days and 36 months using Kaplan Meier analysis. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to compare mortality risk by ethnicity.

Cumulative 28-day all-cause mortality risk for Mexican Americans (MAs) was 7.8% and for non-Hispanic whites (NHWs) was 13.5%. Cumulative 36-month all-cause mortality risk was 31.3% in MAs and 47.2% in NHWs. MAs had lower 28-day (RR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.84) and 36-month all-cause mortality risk (RR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64, 0.98) compared with NHWs, adjusted for confounders.

Better survival after stroke in MAs is surprising considering their similar stroke subtype and severity compared with NHWs. Social or psychological factors, which may explain this difference, should be explored.