Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a major cause of disability in the United States. A stroke can occur when the blood supply to part of the brain is blocked, or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, causing damage to a part of the brain.
Some health conditions and behavioral and lifestyle factors can put individuals at a higher risk for stroke. The most important
risk factors are high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and cigarette smoking. Individuals can help prevent a stroke by making behavioral and lifestyle changes that lower their risk.
Genetics and family history
Genes play a role in developing risk factors that can lead to a stroke, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and vascular conditions. An increased risk for stroke within a family may also be due to common factors, such as a sedentary lifestyle or poor eating habits. Thus, family health history is an important tool for identifying people at increased risk for stroke because it reflects both an individual’s genes and shared environmental risk factors.
Stroke also occurs as a complication of several genetic disorders, the most common of these being sickle cell disease. Other genetic disorders such as CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy) have stroke as the primary feature, but these disorders are quite rare. Research in inherited diseases that include stroke is providing insights into how genes contribute to stroke risk with the goal of developing new approaches for predicting, preventing, and treating the disease.
 CDC’s WISEWOMAN Program
The WISEWOMAN (Well–Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation) program is one of many activities that CDC supports to reduce the burden of heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases in the United States.
WISEWOMAN helps low-income, under-insured, or uninsured women 40-64 years gain access to screening (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol), lifestyle interventions (e.g., diet, physical activity), and referral services to prevent and control cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases. Some WISEWOMAN programs provide education on the importance of family health history, and conduct risk assessments.
CDC funds 15 WISEWOMAN programs, which operate at the local level in states and tribal organizations. Since 2000, WISEWOMAN has identified over 5,783 cases of previously undiagnosed hypertension, 6,286 cases of undiagnosed high cholesterol, and more than 800 cases of undiagnosed diabetes. |
|
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH
American Stroke Association 
National Stroke Association
|
|