ADAPT Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) researchers recently published a paper on the proportionality of certain risk factors contributing to ischemic stroke. Researchers Elizabeth Hunter and Professor John Kelleher co-authored the paper Determining the Proportionality of Ischemic Stroke Risk Factors to Age published January 2023 via the Special Issue Ischemic Stroke: New Insights from Risk Factors, Mechanisms and Outcomes on MDPI.
Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot has cut off blood supply to a section of the brain resulting in the brain tissue dying. This paper presents a framework that tests if risk factors associated with this type of stroke are proportional with age. The framework outlined in the paper is applied to a set of risk factors using the Framingham heart study data from the NHLBI Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center to determine if evidence can be found of proportionality. Using this framework, the paper identifies a number of risk factors that may be non-proportional to age, including, but not limited to, diastolic blood pressure and high blood pressure treatment.
The paper suggests that the testing for the proportionality of risk factors with age should be considered in stroke risk prediction modelling. As a result, traditional modelling methods may need to be adjusted to capture this non-proportionality. This research has important implications for stroke prevention and highlights the need for continued development of stroke risk prediction models that account for non-proportional risk factors.
For more information about this study, you can access the full paper on MDPI here.
