The incidence of stroke and related deaths are rising substantially around the world, with air pollution, high temperatures and metabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure and physical inactivity, driving these increases, according to estimates published in The Lancet Neurology journal. Researchers found that the contribution of high temperatures to poor health and early death due to strokes has increased 72 per cent since 1990, and is likely to continue increasing in the future, thereby highlighting how environmental factors can impact the growing stroke burden. Further, for the first time, particulate matter or PM air pollution was found to have the same contribution as smoking towards causing a fatal form of brain bleed, according to the researchers forming the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) group.
The GBD study, the "largest and most comprehensive effort to quantify health loss across places and over time", is coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, United States. Globally, the number of people experiencing a stroke for the first time rose to 119 lakh in 2021 -- up by 70 per cent since 1990 -- while deaths related to stroke rose to 73 lakh, which was up by 44 per cent since 1990, making the neurological condition the third-leading cause of death after ischaemic heart disease (short supply of blood to heart) and COVID-19, the researchers found. They added that over three-fourt.