Stroke Belt

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Map of states of the Stroke Belt Stroke belt.svg
Map of states of the Stroke Belt

The Stroke Belt or Stroke Alley is a region in the southeastern United States that has been recognized by public health authorities for having an unusually high incidence of stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease. It is usually defined as a 11-state region consisting of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. It is often disputed if Texas belongs in the Stroke Belt. [1]

Contents

Although many possible causes for the high stroke incidence have been investigated, the reasons for the phenomenon have not been determined.[ citation needed ]

Geographic scope

Stroke death rates (2002-2007), adults 35+ by U.S. county Stroke Death Rates 2002-2007 Adults 35+ by county US.png
Stroke death rates (2002–2007), adults 35+ by U.S. county

The Stroke Belt is typically defined to include the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. [2] In 1980, these 11 states had age-adjusted stroke mortality rates more than 10% above the national average. [3]

Some investigators also consider North Florida to be a part of the Stroke Belt, based on a stroke mortality rate higher than several states included in the region. [4] East Texas is also characterized as part of the Stroke Belt. [1]

History of observations

High rates of lung cancer (indicated in this map by brown colors) are highly correlated with the Stroke Belt. Lung cancer US distribution.gif
High rates of lung cancer (indicated in this map by brown colors) are highly correlated with the Stroke Belt.

The Stroke Belt was first identified in 1962 by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) researchers who noted a concentration of high stroke death rates in the Atlantic coastal plain counties of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. [5] Similar high stroke rates were later observed in the Mississippi Delta region as well. [5] [6]

Analysis by the CDC of U.S. mortality statistics from 1991 to 1998 found that for both blacks and whites, counties with the highest stroke death rates were in the southeastern states and the Mississippi Delta region. Stroke death rates for states ranged from a high of 169 per 100,000 in South Carolina to a low of 89 per 100,000 in New York. [7] While most observational studies have focused primarily on stroke incidence in adults, in 2004 researchers reported that children in the eleven Stroke Belt states also have an increased risk of death from ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke compared with children in other states. [8]

Glymour et al. (2007) reported that adults who had resided in the Stroke Belt during childhood and had moved outside the region had higher stroke risk at ages 50 and older than adults who grew up in areas with lower stroke incidence. [9] A study reported in 2011 found that people over age 45 living in the eight "stroke belt" states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee had an 18 percent higher incidence of cognitive decline than people in other U.S. regions. Another researcher noted that, "Stroke by itself is a major contributor to cognitive impairment and dementia." [10] Other researchers have made similar observations. [11] [12]

In 2011, CDC researchers mapped the occurrence of diabetes in the U.S. by county, finding that highest prevalence of diabetes is in a "diabetes belt" that has extensive overlap with the Stroke Belt. [13] [14]

Hypotheses on causation

Black percentage of the population, 2000 U.S. Census Census2000 Percent Black Map.jpg
Black percentage of the population, 2000 U.S. Census

The causes of the elevated incidence of stroke in the Stroke Belt region have not been determined. [6] [9] [15] [16] Numerous possible contributing factors have been identified, including hypertension, low socioeconomic status, diet, cultural lifestyle, quality of healthcare facilities, smoking, and infections. [17] Among the specific factors that have been proposed or studied are the following:

Public health initiatives to reduce stroke incidence in the region

The U.S. federal government has conducted public health programs specifically aimed at reducing stroke incidence and mortality in the Stroke Belt. In the 1990s the Stroke Belt Initiative operated in eleven Stroke Belt states, providing nutrition education, blood pressure screening, smoking cessation programs, weight loss programs, and other health promotion and public education initiatives targeted at stroke risk factors. [3]

In 2004, the Stroke Belt Elimination Initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded grants aimed at reducing the high incidence of stroke and high rates of stroke death and disability in the seven states with the highest rates of stroke (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). [15]

Origins

The term "Stroke Belt" is modeled after similar terms used for U.S. regions such as "snowbelt" and "Sun Belt", [30] which extend the analogy to the belt as an article of clothing. The coastal plain counties of the Carolinas and Georgia — where the stroke belt phenomenon was first described, and where stroke incidence is highest — are sometimes called the "buckle of the stroke belt" or the "stroke buckle". [31] [32]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Emily Ramshaw, East Texans’ Bad Health and Bad Habits Promote a ‘Stroke Belt’, The New York Times , January 14, 2011
  2. ↑ "What is the Stroke Belt?". Live Science . 27 March 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Stroke Belt Initiative: Project Accomplishments and Lessons Learned Archived 2008-10-01 at the Wayback Machine , National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health; reports on a conference that occurred in 1996
  4. ↑ Siegel PZ, Wolfe LE, Wilcox D, Deeb LC (1992). "North Florida is part of the stroke belt". Public Health Rep. 107 (5): 540–3. PMC   1403695 . PMID   1410234.
  5. 1 2 3 Combating Southern Fried Fat, CBS News, February 14, 2005
  6. 1 2 Casper ML, Wing S, Anda RF, Knowles M, Pollard RA (May 1995). "The shifting stroke belt. Changes in the geographic pattern of stroke mortality in the United States, 1962 to 1988". Stroke. 26 (5): 755–60. doi:10.1161/01.str.26.5.755. PMID   7740562.
  7. ↑ CDC Releases Atlas of Stroke Mortality Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, February 20, 2003
  8. 1 2 Fullerton HJ, Elkins JS, Johnston SC (Jul 2004). "Pediatric Stroke Belt: geographic variation in stroke mortality in US children". Stroke. 35 (7): 1570–3. doi:10.1161/01.STR.0000130514.21773.95. PMID   15178830. S2CID   9059839.
  9. 1 2 3 Glymour MM, Avendaño M, Berkman LF (Sep 2007). "Is the 'stroke belt' worn from childhood?: risk of first stroke and state of residence in childhood and adulthood". Stroke. 38 (9): 2415–21. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.107.482059 . PMID   17673716.
  10. ↑ Mary Elizabeth Dallas, U.S. Southeast 'Stroke Belt' Also Shows Higher Rates of Cognitive Decline, Health Day (MedLine Plus), May 26, 2011
  11. ↑ El-Saed A, Kuller LH (Sep 2007). "Is the stroke belt worn from childhood?: current knowledge and future directions". Stroke. 38 (9): 2403–4. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.107.487405. PMID   17673801. S2CID   45182116. Archived from the original on 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  12. ↑ Kuźma E, Lourida I, Moore SF, Levine DA, Ukoumunne OC, Llewellyn DJ (August 2018). "Stroke and dementia risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis". Alzheimer's & Dementia. 14 (11): 1416–1426. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2018.06.3061. hdl:2027.42/152961. ISSN   1552-5260. PMC   6231970 . PMID   30177276.
  13. ↑ Nathan Seppa (March 8, 2011). "'Diabetes Belt' Outlined; Region of high prevalence stretches across Deep South and Appalachia". U.S. News & World Report.
  14. ↑ "Researchers find U.S. "diabetes belt"". Reuters. March 8, 2011. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  15. 1 2 "HHS Announces Initiative to Reduce the Incidence of Stroke in Stroke Belt States" (press release). Department of Health and Human Services. August 5, 2004. Archived from the original on October 31, 2004.
  16. 1 2 Stroke Mystery, Newsweek , November 8, 2005
  17. 1 2 Lisa Nainggolan, Hypertension may not be the whole story in the Stroke Belt, Medscape Medical News, February 9, 2005
  18. ↑ African American males age 45 to 54 have a threefold greater risk of ischemic stroke than white males in the same age range.
  19. ↑ Felicity Barringer, Toward Solving the Mystery Of the American 'Stroke Belt' , The New York Times , July 29, 1992
  20. ↑ Introduction Archived 2009-11-24 at the Wayback Machine , Atlas of Stroke Mortality: Racial, Ethnic, and Geographic Disparities in the United States (Casper ML, Barnett E, Williams GI Jr., Halverson JA, Braham VE, Greenlund KJ). Atlanta, GA: Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003
  21. ↑ Lindsberg PJ, Grau AJ (October 2003). "Inflammation and Infections as Risk Factors for Ischemic Stroke". Stroke. 34 (10): 2518–2532. doi: 10.1161/01.STR.0000089015.51603.CC . PMID   14500942.
  22. ↑ Kelly PJ, Murphy S, Coveney S, Purroy F, Lemmens R, Tsivgoulis G, Price C (1 February 2018). "Anti-inflammatory approaches to ischaemic stroke prevention". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 89 (2): 211–218. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2016-314817 . PMID   28935831.
  23. ↑ Moore JX, Donnelly JP, Griffin R, Safford MM, Howard G, Baddley J, Wang HE (1 October 2017). "Community characteristics and regional variations in sepsis". International Journal of Epidemiology. 46 (5): 1607–1617. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyx099 . PMC   6455035 . PMID   29121335.
  24. ↑ Cushman M, McClure LA, Howard VJ, Jenny NS, Lakoski SG, Howard G (1 September 2009). "Implications of Increased C-Reactive Protein for Cardiovascular Risk Stratification in Black and White Men and Women in the US". Clinical Chemistry. 55 (9): 1627–1636. doi: 10.1373/clinchem.2008.122093 . PMC   2810186 . PMID   19643839.
  25. ↑ "C-reactive protein test - Mayo Clinic". www.mayoclinic.org.
  26. ↑ Stroke Belt — A Standard of Care Phenomenon?, Family Practice News, June 1, 2000
  27. ↑ Risk may be associated with mother's health Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine , Health & Medicine Week, July 14, 2003
  28. ↑ Bakalar N (3 January 2011). "Diet: Fried Fish Is Seen as a 'Stroke Belt' Culprit". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  29. ↑ Peto R, Lopez AD, Boreham J, et al. (2006). Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950–2000: Indirect estimates from National Vital Statistics. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-262535-9.
  30. ↑ WordSpy website Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine , posted on March 25, 2003
  31. ↑ Howard G, Anderson R, Johnson NJ, Sorlie P, Russell G, Howard VJ (May 1997). "Evaluation of social status as a contributing factor to the stroke belt region of the United States". Stroke. 28 (5): 936–40. doi:10.1161/01.str.28.5.936. PMID   9158628. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012.
  32. ↑ I S, N C, G H (2008). "Exposure to the US Stroke Buckle as a Risk Factor for Cerebrovascular Mortality". Neuroepidemiology. 30 (4): 229–233. doi:10.1159/000128102. PMC   2821430 . PMID   18437029.
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