Black Women with High Blood Pressure Before Age 35 May Have 3x the Risk of Stroke  

Photo of Hugo Javier Aparicio, MD, MPHBlack women who develop high blood pressure before age 35 and are on medication for hypertension may triple their odds of having a stroke and those who develop high blood pressure before age 45 may have twice the risk of suffering a stroke, according to a presentation by Hugo J. Aparicio, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology. He will present his findings during the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2024, Feb. 7-9.

“This research was motivated by the glaring disparity I have seen in my own practice. Strokes are occurring at younger ages among my patients who identify as Black and among women,” said author Aparicio. “Early onset stroke, particularly at midlife, is even more tragic because these patients often have families or are caretakers for sick family members themselves.”

“In addition, early onset stroke at a younger age is associated with an increased risk of dying, as well as a burden of physical disability that creates many problems for stroke survivors and their families as they try to re-integrate into their normal lives and work after hospitalization,” Aparicio said.

According to the 2023 American Heart Association Statistical Update, the rate of high blood pressure in Black adults in the United States is among the highest in the world. In the U.S. about 58% of Black women have high blood pressure, while 43% of white women, 37% of Asian women and 35% of Hispanic women have high blood pressure.

Researchers investigated how the development of high blood pressure at a younger stage in life among Black women may influence the risk of a potentially disabling stroke. They examined data from the Black Women’s Health Study, a study of 59,000 Black women from across the United States who have been followed since 1995 via questionnaires once every two years.

Researchers compared participants with and without treatment for hypertension before age 45, between ages 45-64, and within 10-year age intervals from 1999 to 2019.

The analysis found that stroke occurred in 1,485 participants (3.2%) during up to 23 years of follow up. Compared to Black women with no history of hypertension treatment:

  • Black women who developed high blood pressure and began hypertension treatment between ages 24-34 had a 3.1 times higher risk of having a subsequent stroke.
  • Black women who developed high blood pressure and were treated before age 45 had a 2.2 times higher risk of stroke.
  • Black women who had high blood pressure and were treated between ages 45-64 faced 1.69 higher odds of a stroke.

“We expected to see an association between having high blood pressure at a younger age and having a stroke during midlife and later life, however, we were surprised and concerned to see the magnitude of the relationship, especially for women who were taking antihypertension medications before age 35,” Aparicio said.

“This was striking because we had the ability to adjust or account for many important factors in this longitudinal study, including clinical factors like smoking, body weight and diabetes status; and neighborhood socioeconomic status, which is estimated using zip code data. We also adjusted for people living in certain geographic regions in the U.S. where stroke is more common and where stroke mortality is higher, mainly clustered in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country, or the so-called “Stroke Belt.”

“My hope is that health care professionals are persuaded to pay special attention to high blood pressure screening and treatment over the life course for African American women, such as during child-bearing years and both before and at the start of middle age. Health care policy changes are needed so that primary prevention is promoted and funded because by the time a Black woman has a stroke at middle age, it is often too late,” Aparicio said.