Each year, nearly 800k individuals in the United States experience a first or recurrent stroke, of whom between 10%-15% occur among adults 18 to 45 years of age. Stroke incidence and hospitalizations have increased by more than 40% among young adults during the past several decades. Compared with older individuals with a more significant overall stroke burden, young adult stroke survivors may face more significant economic impact because of the onset of disability during their most productive years.
The study population included 24,769 adults, of which 39.7% were young adults who were included in the primary analysis, and represented 107 million US young adults. Overall, 28.9% of young adults were not aware of all five stroke symptoms, whereas 2.7% were unaware of a single symptom. Individuals with five high-risk characteristics had nearly a 4-fold higher odds of not being aware of all symptoms.
In this study, it was found that about 30% of young adults, representing 31 million young adults in the United States, were not aware of all five common symptoms of stroke, and almost 3% would not contact EMS in response to perceived stroke symptoms, with substantial disparities across different socio demographic subgroups. The results highlight that the vulnerable populations that would derive benefit from educational campaigns to improve awareness of stroke symptoms and focused public health interventions in this population with growing stroke incidence.
Ref: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031137
