Therapeutic Milestone

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Stroke mortality rates declined for much of the second half of the 20th century, but recent trends and their relation to other organ- and disease-specific causes of death have not been characterized. METHODS: Using the National Center for Health Statistics mortality data, leading organ- and disease-specific causes of death were assessed for the most recent 10-year period (1996 to 2005) in the United States with a specific focus on stroke deaths. RESULTS: Age-adjusted stroke death rates declined by 25.4%; as a result, lung cancer (which only declined by 9.2%) surpassed stroke as the second leading cause of death in 2003. Despite a 31.9% decline in age-adjusted ischemic heart disease death rates, it remains the leading cause of death. Stroke is now the fifth leading cause of death in men and the fourth leading cause of death in whites but remains the second leading cause of death in women and blacks. CONCLUSIONS: With stroke death rates decreasing substantially in the United States from 1996 to 2005, stroke moved from the second to the third leading organ- and disease-specific cause of death. Women and blacks may warrant attention for targeted stroke prevention and treatment because they continue to have disproportionately high stroke death rates.