stroke belt

(STROHK belt)

n.

An area in the southeastern United States, particular the states of South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, that has an unusually high rate of strokes and other forms of heart disease.

Example Citation:

Geographic disparities in stroke mortality have been charted for decades. The term "stroke belt" was coined to describe the higher rate for men, women, blacks and whites in the southeastern United States. Researchers once thought geography held the answer, theorizing the South might have different chemicals, both good and bad, in its water, soil and air. But over the past 25 years, high stroke rates in counties in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have shifted. New concentrations of stroke deaths appeared in counties in Mississippi, Arkansas and North Florida.

Researchers now suspect socioeconomic conditions, availability of health care and migration patterns are much more important than once thought.

— Susan Aschoff, "Mapping out stroke deaths," St. Petersburg Times, March 18, 2003

Earliest Citation:

Three physicians from China traveled to America's southeastern coastal plains to get a country doctor's views on a problem they all encounter in their work — unusually high rates of cardiovascular disease.

Forms of the disease are high in China's Kishan Province — and in the flat coastal lands of North Carolina and South Carolina. ...

Until a few years ago, adolescents and young women in Kishan Province died at alarming rates from Kishan's Disease, which causes congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema.

People in the province, as well as the "stroke belt" of Georgia and the Carolinas, have an unusually low level of the trace element selenium in their diets, Hames told his visitors.

— "Study Heart Disease In Georgia, Carolinas," The Associated Press, March 22, 1983

Notes:

The Centers for Disease Control recently released a report called the Atlas of Stroke Mortality: http://www.cdc.gov/cvh/maps/strokeatlas/ which breaks down stroke deaths in the U.S. by state, county, race, and ethnic group. When the state deaths are graphed on a map, you see a striking grouping in the southeast, encompassing the five states that I mentioned in the definition, which have the five worst rates of stroke death. This geographical proximity has earned these states the label stroke belt, which is modeled on similar constructions such as sun belt (1969) and snow belt (1874).

Here are the ten states with the worst rates, measured in deaths per 100,000 people (the ranking begins at 35 — which represents the state with the highest rate — because some states were tied):

RankStateRate

35. South Carolina 169

34. Arkansas 163

33. Tennessee 156

32. North Carolina 155

31. Georgia 146

31. Oregon 146

30. Mississippi 140

29. Indiana 138

28. Virginia 137

27. Alabama 135

Here are the ten states with the lowest rates of stroke deaths:

RankStateRate

1. New York 89

2. Maryland 100

3. New Jersey 101

4. Florida 102

5. Connecticut 105

6. New Mexico 105

7. Delaware 107

8. Arizona 108

9. Maine 111

10. Colorado 110

Related Words:

Asian paradox

buck fever

bypass brain

disease cluster

Hispanic paradox

prehypertension

sedentary death syndrome

white coat effect

Categories:

Diseases and Syndromes

Medicine

Geography