Cardiovascular Disease
Stroke and Cardiovascular Risk
How stroke relates to cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, and what county estimates can and cannot show.
Beginner explanation
A stroke — sometimes called a brain attack — happens when something blocks the blood supply to part of the brain, or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. Without oxygen, brain cells start to die within minutes. A stroke can cause lasting brain damage, long-term disability or death.[1]
Stroke shares many risk factors with heart disease. High blood pressure is a leading cause of stroke, which is why MedEquity places stroke in both the cardiovascular and neurological categories.[2]
Key definitions
- Ischemic stroke
- The most common type: a blood clot or other particle blocks a blood vessel to the brain.
- Hemorrhagic stroke
- An artery in the brain leaks or ruptures, and the leaked blood damages brain cells.
- Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
- Often called a “mini-stroke”: blood flow to the brain is blocked for a short time, usually no more than 5 minutes. It is a warning sign and a medical emergency.
- Hypertension
- High blood pressure — consistently at or above 130/80 mm Hg.
Condition characteristics
CDC lists these sudden signs of stroke:[3]
- Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or lack of coordination
- Trouble seeing
- Numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
- Confusion, trouble speaking or difficulty understanding speech
- Severe headache with no known cause
Source[3]
Call 911 right away if you see these signs, and note the time symptoms began. The most effective stroke treatments work only if stroke is recognized and diagnosed within 3 hours of the first symptoms. CDC’s B.E. F.A.S.T. check covers Balance, Eyes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty and Time to call 911.[3]
A TIA should never be ignored. CDC reports that more than a third of people who have a TIA and are not treated have a major stroke within a year.[1]
Risk factors
Medical conditions that raise stroke risk include a previous stroke or TIA, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease (including atrial fibrillation and heart valve defects), diabetes, obesity and sickle cell disease.[2]
Behaviors that raise risk include a diet high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol or salt; physical inactivity; drinking too much alcohol; and tobacco use, including exposure to secondhand smoke. Age, sex, race or ethnicity and family history also affect risk.[2]
High blood pressure usually has no symptoms. Normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mm Hg; high blood pressure can damage the arteries that supply the brain so that they burst or become blocked.[4]
Prevention and public health context
The best protection is knowing and controlling risk. Getting blood pressure checked regularly — and lowering it through lifestyle changes or medicine when it is high — also lowers stroke risk.[2, 4]
Recognizing a TIA and getting care can lower the risk of a major stroke, because the health care team can look for the cause and take steps to prevent another event.[1]
Texas data context
MedEquity maps two related PLACES measures: stroke (adults who report ever having been told by a health professional that they had a stroke) and high blood pressure (adults who report being told they have high blood pressure, excluding high blood pressure only during pregnancy and borderline hypertension). The stroke measure describes adults living after a stroke; it is not a stroke death rate.[5]
A county with high values for both measures does not show that blood pressure caused strokes in that county. County correlations describe places, not individuals, and PLACES estimates share model inputs.[6]
Related measures on the Explore map
- Stroke among adults (modeled estimate)
- High blood pressure among adults (modeled estimate)
Advanced material (optional)
CDC notes that the blood-pressure question is asked only in odd-numbered survey years, so a PLACES release can carry high blood pressure data from an earlier survey year than its other measures. MedEquity shows the observation year for each measure separately for this reason.[6]
Midlife high blood pressure is also linked to poorer cognitive function and dementia later in life, one reason blood-pressure control matters beyond the heart.[4]
References
- About Stroke. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/about/index.html (accessed 2026-10-18).
- Risk Factors for Stroke. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/risk-factors/index.html (accessed 2026-10-18).
- Signs and Symptoms of Stroke. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/signs-symptoms/index.html (accessed 2026-10-18).
- About High Blood Pressure. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/high-blood-pressure/about/index.html (accessed 2026-10-18).
- PLACES Measure Definitions: Health Outcomes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/places/measure-definitions/health-outcomes.html (accessed 2026-10-18).
- PLACES: Frequently Asked Questions. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/places/faqs/index.html (accessed 2026-10-18).