An Uptick in Ticker-Related Events

Strokes are predicted to increase in Mexican-Americans in the coming decades from about 26,000 in 2010 to more than 125,000 in 2050 -- a 350 percent increase.

The projections were issued by the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and data collected in an ongoing community-based study comparing stroke in Mexican-Americans and non-Hispanic Americans known as the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) Project.

To arrive at these figures, researchers took annual incidence rates and multiplied them by corresponding ethnic, age and sex-specific projected population counts by the decade.

Lynda D. Lisabeth, Ph.D., M.P.H.,co-author and associate professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, said her group of researchers are targeting stroke prevention through Catholic churches by addressing lifestyle changes.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and is attributable to one in 18 deaths in the country, according to the American Heart Association.