Strokes claim more African Americans in the South

A new study out of New Orleans has found that African Americans in the South have double the risks for stroke. According to George Howard, African Americans are four times more likely to die from a stroke than white men living outside the south and have a 51% higher rate of death from stroke than black males living outside the south. Howard compared deaths from strokes in 10 southern states to 11 non-southern states using statistics from the National Center for Health. He found that from 1997 to 2001 deaths due to stoke for white men ages 55-64 in the south accounted for 49 out of 1,000 deaths. This rate is 29% higher than in white males in non-southern states. Yet, this pales in comparison with the statistics for black males living in the south. Stroke as a cause of death tripled in black males, accounting for 159 deaths out of 1,000 deaths. Furthermore, death due to stroke only accounted for 105 deaths in non-southern states.
Theories have been formulated to explain these scary statistics. One reason may be that southerners are more likely to smoke, be overweight, and have high blood pressure, all of which increase chance of stroke.
This article was published on the health section of the cnn news website http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/02/03/stroke.race.ap/index.html