Response to Letter Regarding Article, “Psychosocial Distress and Stroke Risk in Older Adults”

Abstract

We appreciate the letter by Drs Egido and Garcia commenting on our recent report in Stroke ,1 which identified increasing levels of psychosocial distress as a significant predictor of incident stroke, particularly hemorrhagic stroke and stroke mortality in a US population–based cohort of black and white community residents aged ≥65 years. Egido et al2 recently reported similar results in a case-control study of 150 younger patients with stroke (mean age, 53.8; range, 18–65 years) from a hospital-based stroke unit in Madrid, Spain, and 300 age-matched neighborhood controls. In their study, patients with stroke were significantly more likely than controls to report moderate and high scores on the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale,3 a measure of perceived stressfulness of recently experienced life events. This association was maintained after adjusting for demographics, health behaviors, medical history …