The National Longitudinal Mortality Study

Background and Purpose Although US blacks are known to have an excess stroke mortality compared with US whites, little is known about the stroke burden of the Hispanic white population. This report will provide estimates of the relative burden of stroke mortality in the US black and Hispanic population relative to the white population and examine the consistency of this relation across age. Methods Data were from participants aged >45 years from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. There were 1844 stroke deaths among 239 734 non-Hispanic whites, 46 deaths among 12 527 Hispanic whites, and 234 deaths among 23 468 black participants. Standard statistical methods were used to examine the ethnic differences in stroke mortality. Resuts The hazard ratios for black men and women (relative to non-Hispanic whites) were nearly identical, at >4.0 at age 45 but marginally <1.0 by age 85. For both Hispanic men and women, the hazard ratios (relative to non-Hispanic whites) were approximately 1.0 at age 45 but were marginally