Use of Antihypertensive Medication after Ischemic Stroke in Young Adults and its Association with Long-term Outcome

AbstractBackground: Knowledge on the use of secondary preventive medication in young adults is limited.Methods: We included 936 first-ever ischemic stroke 30-day survivors aged 15-49, enrolled in the Helsinki Young Stroke Registry, 1994-2007. Follow-up data until 2012 came from Finnish Care Register, Statistics Finland, and Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Usage thresholds were defined as non-users, low (prescription coverage 80%). Adjusted Cox regression allowed assessing the association of usage with all-cause mortality and recurrent vascular events.Results: Of our patients, 40.5% were non-users, 7.8% had low usage, 11.8% intermediate usage, and 40.0% high usage. Median follow-up was 8.3 years. Compared to non-users, risk of mortality and recurrent stroke or TIA was lower for patients with low-intermediate (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.22-0.65; HR 0.31, 95% CI 0.18-0.53) and high usage (HR 0.25, 95% CI 0.15-0.42; HR 0.30, 95%CI 0.19-0.46), after adjustment for ...