Stroke can affect the ability to think clearly. Planning and doing simple activities may be hard. Survivors may not know how to start a task, confuse logical steps in tasks, or forget how to do tasks they've done many times before. Stroke affects survivors directly, but families need to provide physical and emotional support. About 600,000 Americans a year suffer a stroke.
Stroke kills more women than men.
Women account for more than three out of five deaths from stroke. But the elderly and African Americans are at greatest risk. African Americans have a two to three times greater risk of stroke caused by a blood clot, and they are 2.5 times more likely to die of stroke. Stroke risk more than doubles in each decade after age 55. About 4 million stroke survivors are alive today.