Socioeconomic status may account for some, but not all, of the increased risk of stroke African Americans face, a new study shows.

Among men and women living in the Greater Cincinnati area, blacks were 69 percent more likely to suffer a first-time stroke in 1999 than whites, Dr. Dawn O. Kleindorfer of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio found. Adjusting for the effects of socioeconomic status reduced some of the effects of ethnicity, but not all of them.

Kleindorfer and her team conclude that about 39 percent of African Americans' increased stroke risk is due to socioeconomic status.

But the factors responsible for the remaining greater risk remain unclear, she noted in an interview with Reuters Health. High blood pressure, diabetes, genetic factors and even diet have been proposed as possibilities, said Kleindorfer, who believes high blood pressure and diabetes are the most plausible contributors. She and her colleagues are now conducting a large National Institutes of Health-funded study to investigate the issue.

In the current study, whites faced the same greater stroke risk from living in poorer neighborhoods seen among blacks. 

People who live in a high-poverty census tract aren't necessarily poor themselves, Kleindorfer notes, but they may experience other factors that can affect health such as worse access to hospitals and health care, crime and crowding.

She and her colleagues conclude: "Further study is required to understand why socioeconomic status is associated with stroke incidence so that we may intervene and decrease stroke incidence in the future."

SOURCE: Annals of Neurology, October 2006.