Curbing moderate to heavy alcohol use in young adults should be emphasized as part of any strategy to reduce rising rates of stroke in young people, researchers say.
Young adults who are moderate to heavy drinkers are at increased risk of suffering a stroke — and the risk goes up with more years of imbibing, a new study suggests. "The rate of stroke among young adults has been increasing over the last few decades, and stroke in young adults causes death and serious disability," study co-author Eue-Keun Choi, MD, PhD, with Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, said in a statement. "If we could prevent stroke in young adults by reducing alcohol consumption, that could potentially have a substantial impact on the health of individuals and the overall burden of stroke on society," Choi added. The study was published online November 2 in Neurology. Compounding Effects Using data from a Korean national health database, the researchers identified roughly 1.5 million adults aged 20-39 years (mean age 29.5 years, 72% male) who had four consecutive annual health examinations during which they were asked about their alcohol use. During a median follow up of roughly 6 years, a total of 3153 individuals suffered a stroke (1773 ischemic and 1535 hemorrhagic). After multivariate adjustment accounting for other factors that could affect the risk for stroke, such as hypertension, smoking and body mass index, the risk of stroke…