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Study Pinpoints Risk Factors for Death in Young Stroke Victims

In the study led by Dr. Jukka Putaala, from the Department of Neurology at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland, the researchers collected data on 731 patients aged 15 to 49 who suffered a stroke from January 1994 to September 2003. Among these patients, 78 died.

Those who were 45 or older at the time of their stroke were less likely to survive, the researchers found. Among the patients who died, 21 percent died of their stroke, 36 percent died from heart failure or another heart problem, 12 percent died from cancer and 9 percent died from previous infections. In addition, heavy drinking accounted for an increased risk of dying after a stroke, the team found.

These factors independently predicted survival at five years after taking into account age, sex, other risk factors, the severity of the stroke and the type of stroke, the researchers noted.

"Despite the overall low risk of death in the young after the first-ever ischemic stroke, several easily recognizable factors associate independently with the long-term mortality," the researchers write.

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