Differences in stroke between white, Hispanic, and Native American patients: the Barrow Neurological Institute stroke...

Identification of specific features of stroke in minority populations should lead to more effectively focused treatment and prevention.

We examined 1290 white (WHI), 242 Hispanic (HIS), 83 Native American (NA), and 101 other stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients hospitalized at the Barrow Neurological Institute from 1990 through 1996.

Chi-square analysis detected significant (P<.05) differences as follows: (1) Stroke types--lacunes more prevalent in NA than WHI and HIS (30% versus 16% and 15%); cardioembolic more prevalent in WHI than HIS (16% versus 9%, NA 14%); hemorrhages more prevalent in HIS than WHI and NA (48% versus 37% and 27%); (2) Risk factors--hypertension more prevalent in HIS than WHI (72% versus 66%; NA 71%); diabetes more prevalent in NA than HIS and WHI (62% versus 36% and 17%); cigarette smoking more prevalent in WHI than HIS and NA (61% versus 46% and 41%); cardiac disease more prevalent in WHI than HIS (34% versus 24%; NA 27%); heavier alcohol intake in NA than HIS than WHI (43% versus 24% versus 17%). There were no significant outcome differences between races for any stroke type. ANOVA detected significantly lower mean age at stroke onset in NA than HIS than WHI (56 versus 61 versus 69 years).

There are significant differences in prevalence of risk factors and stroke types between WHI, HIS, and NA in our hospital-based population. Although the three races appear to respond to risk factors similarly, Hispanics may be especially susceptible to hemorrhage. Further evaluation of these observations in community-based studies will be important.