Southern blacks face excess risk of stroke

From New Orleans, at a meeting of the American Stroke Association

Scientists have known for decades that blacks in the United States are at greater risk of stroke than whites are. Studies have also suggested that southerners of any race or ethnicity have more strokes than northerners do.

A new investigation finds that blacks between the ages of 55 and 64 living in southern states are about 50 percent more likely to die of stroke than are blacks of the same age living in the north.