Stroke in women: epidemiology, risk and prevention

Published on December 30, 2018   43 min

A selection of talks on Neurology

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0:00
Hello, my name is Cheryl Bushnell. I am a professor of neurology and director of the Stroke Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The topic I'd like to talk about today is stroke in women. I'll be covering epidemiology, risk, and prevention. This is an update with current information from the lecture that was recorded 10 years ago. So, hopefully, you will find this information useful in your practice.
0:29
The overview of topics I'll cover include the epidemiology of sex differences, stroke risk factors that are unique to or more prevalent in women than men, which includes pregnancy complications, menopause, hormonal contraception and replacement, and atrial fibrillation. Then, I'll finish by talking about risk screening and prevention of stroke in women and men but, in particular, how this can be applied to women and their unique risk factors.
1:01
I'll give you a little more detail about the epidemiology. Men, actually, have a higher stroke incidence than women but, women have a 20 percent lifetime prevalence of stroke compared to a 17 percent prevalence in men. This is because they live longer. So, because women live longer, they're more likely to die from stroke, including up to 30,000 more women than men who will die as a result of a stroke. Now, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in men but, it is the fourth leading cause of death in women; again, because more women die from stroke and again, because they tend to live longer. So, when you talk about the number of women who have had a stroke and survived, there are actually 200,000 more disabled women from stroke than men.
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Stroke in women: epidemiology, risk and prevention

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