Young Adults With Migraine, Other Nontraditional Risk Factors, May Have a Higher Risk of Stroke

Young adults (under the age of 35) have a higher risk of developing stroke from nontraditional risk factors such as migraine as opposed to more traditional risk factors like high blood pressure, according to a study published this week in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

While most strokes are caused by traditional risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, smoking, obesity, low physical activity, alcohol abuse or coronary heart disease, recent evidence shows an increased incidence of strokes among young adults who lack the aforementioned risk factors. “We wanted to understand which risk factors were the top contributors to stroke risk among young adults,” said study lead author Michelle Leppert, MD, MS, MBA, FAHA, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado via a press release.

Researchers used a Colorado-based administrative database of health insurance claims to assess more than 2,600 people who had strokes to more than 7,800 people who did not to determine which risk factors may most often lead to strokes. According to the results, nontraditional stroke risk factors, such as migraines, blood clotting disorders, kidney failure, autoimmune diseases or malignancy, were significantly associated with the development of strokes in men and women 18- to 44-years old. This found link between stroke and nontraditional stroke risk factors was stronger in adults younger than 35 years old.

“These findings are significant because most of our attention has been focused on traditional risk factors,” Dr. Leppert said. “We should not ignore nontraditional stroke risk factors and only focus on traditional risk factors; both are important to the development of strokes among young people.