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Women face a 20% higher risk of death after stroke than men, according to a new report.

To investigate gender difference in mortality after stroke, Dr. Allan L. Anderson of the Hospital at Medical City Dallas in Texas and colleagues analyzed data from nearly 75,000 stroke patients treated at 195 hospitals between 1998 and 2000.

Anderson presented the findings at the American Heart Association's 3rd Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Washington, DC.

"The most significant finding is the fact that, after risk adjustment, women do have a higher mortality than men do after stroke," Anderson told Reuters Health. He added that similar increased risk of death has been shown for women after heart attack and heart surgery.

Women in the study were significantly older--78 years on average--compared with 73 years for men. The female stroke patients also had more health problems in addition to having had a stroke.

However, male stroke patients were 40% more likely than women to have acute kidney failure, and were nearly four times as likely to suffer from heart problems.

Anderson noted that the men appeared to have been a "sicker population," and were more likely to have suffered past heart attacks and to have type 2 diabetes or blood vessel disease. Men were also more likely to be smokers, and to have had heart bypass surgery or surgical procedures to clear blocked blood vessels in the heart.