HOSPITALIZED STROKE IN BLACKS AND HISPANICS IN NORTHERN MANHATTAN

Background and Purpose: The growing black and Hispanic populations in the United States call for studies of the rates and prognosis for cerebral infarction to help plan more focused prevention programs. Methods: Using the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, we obtained discharge data for 1,034 patients over age 39, who were hospitalized for stroke from 1983 to 1986, using four zip code areas of the ethnically mixed community of Northern Manhattan. Results: Stroke incidence increased with age in both men and women in all three race/ethnic groups. The age-adjusted stroke incidence per 100,000 per year for men greater-than-or-equal-to 40 years of age was 567 for blacks, 306 for Hispanics, and 351 for whites. Incidence in women greater-than-or-equal-to 40 years was 716 in blacks, 361 in Hispanics, and 326 in whites. Hypertension and diabetes were more prevalent in blacks and Hispanics with stroke, whereas whites had more ischemic cardiac disease. Crude in-hospital mortality was greater in younger blacks and Hispanics compared with whites, whereas 2-year readmission rates, overall and for stroke, were similar in the three groups. Conclusions: These estimates of hospitalized stroke incidence and mortality substantiate the greater incidence of stroke in blacks and provide new data concerning Hispanics for public health planning.