Assessing the individual risk of stroke in caregivers of patients with stroke

Genetic factors influence the risk of developing stroke. Still, it is unclear whether this risk is intrinsically high in certain people or if nongenetic factors explain it entirely.

To compare the risk of stroke in kin and nonkin caregivers.

In a cross-sectional study using the Stroke Riskometer app (AUT Ventures Limited, Auckland, AUK, New Zealand), we determined the 5- and 10-year stroke risk (SR) among caregivers of stroke inpatients. The degree of kinship was rated with a score ranging from 0 to 50 points.

We studied 278 caregivers (69.4% of them female) with a mean age of 47.5 ± 14.2 years. Kin caregivers represented 70.1% of the sample, and 49.6% of them were offspring. The median SR at 5 years was of 2.1 (range: 0.35-17.3) versus 1.73 (range: 0.04-29.9), and of 4.0 (range: 0.45-38.6) versus 2.94 (range: 0.05-59.35) at 10 years for the nonkin and kin caregivers respectively. In linear logistic regression controlled for the age of the caregivers, adding the kinship score did not increase the overall variability of the model for the risk at 5 years (R²= 0.271; p = 0.858) nor the risk at 10 years (R²= 0.376; p = 0.78).

Caregivers of stroke patients carry a high SR regardless of their degree of kinship.