Stroke not a health priority for Americans

By Geoff Michaels, May 4th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

A survey shows that only one per cent of the population is worried about stroke risk, even thought it’s the nations Number 3 killer.
The American Stroke Association phoned 1,000 people to find out more about their health concerns and priorities. When asked what disease or health problem they feared most, 33 per cent said cancer, 13 per cent named heart disease - while stroke was mentioned by just one per cent. People were more concerned about diabetes (four per cent), AIDS (three per cent) or high blood pressure (three per cent). A happy (or reckless?) 28 per cent were not worried about any disease happening to them.

Yet stroke is the third most common killer in the US, following on heart disease and cancer. More than one third of the US population is affected by stroke - they’ve either had one themselves or can name someone close who has. Even these people were not that concerned about the possibility of stroke - only two per cent in this group named stroke as a worry.

However, the US population knows something about the risk factors for stroke. In this survey, 23 per cent knew about high blood pressure, while 17 per cent mentioned healthy eating as being important in preventing stroke. But while smoking is probably the major risk factor, only 15 per cent of those surveyed realised this. Perhaps American Stroke Month will go some way towards raising awareness of the danger of stroke and so reduce the frequency of this disabling condition.