Heavy smoking linked to unexplained stroke in young adults, particularly in men and people aged 45-49
By Liberty Gilbert and Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
A recent study finds that people under the age of 50 who smoke heavily have a higher risk of experiencing an unexplained stroke.
The study, published in Neurology, found that this was particularly true in men and people in the 45-49-year-old age group.
“Our findings suggest that continued public health efforts around preventing smoking, especially heavy smoking, may be an important way to help reduce the number of strokes happening to young people,” lead author Phillip Ferdinand, a researcher at Keele University in the United Kingdom and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said in a news release.
The study looked at 546 people between the ages of 18 and 49 who had had an unexplained stroke. This group was then matched for age and gender with 546 people who did not have a stroke.
A stroke occurs “when a blood vessel carrying oxygen and nutrients to the brain is blocked by a clot (ischemic stroke) or bursts (hemorrhagic stroke). When an artery is blocked, the brain can’t get the blood and oxygen it needs. Brain cells can die from the lack of blood and oxygen,” according to UK HealthCare.
Unexplained strokes are called cryptogenic strokes, which are a type of ischemic stroke caused by a blockage of blood flow, but it is unclear what has caused the blockage, says the release.
The researchers found that people who had an unexplained stroke were more likely to smoke. Of those with unexplained stroke, 33% smoked compared to 15% of those who didn’t have a stroke, according to the release.
After adjusting for factors that could affect the risk of stroke, the researchers found that people who smoked had more than twice the risk of having an unexplained stroke when compared to those who did not smoke. They also found the risk was highest in male participants who had more than three times the risk, and also in people ages 45 to 49 who had nearly four times the risk.
The researchers also looked at how many cigarettes, pipes or cigars a person smoked a day and found that people who smoked the equivalent of more than 20 packs a year had more than four times the risk of unexplained stroke compared to those who did not smoke.
“This risk was especially high in male participants with nearly seven times the risk, and in people ages 45 to 49 who had nearly five times the risk,” according to the release.
The release notes that a limitation of the study is that it primarily looked at people of white European backgrounds, so the results may not be the same for other populations. However, Healthline reports that the results echo similar findings linking stroke risk with smoking.
Stroke in Kentucky
Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Stroke Encounter Quality Improvement Project’s 2024 annual report.
The counties with the highest number of patient records in the 2023 SEQIP registry are Letcher, Johnson, Floyd, Pulaski and Harlan counties.
According to the 2021 Kentucky Behavioral Risk Factor Survey, about 4.9% of Kentucky adults have been told by their doctor that they had a stroke. This rate was similar by gender and by race, but significantly increased with age, with the highest prevalence of stroke in adults aged 65 and older (10.5%).
The state Department for Public Health offers a service called Quit Now Kentucky to help Kentuckians of all ages quit smoking. To learn more, go to QuitNowKentucky.org, text QUITKY to 797979 or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The services are free and confidential.
Liberty Gilbert is a student at the University of Kentucky College of Communications and Information and a spring intern for the Institute for Rural Journalism in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, which publishes Kentucky Health News with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.