Stroke risk scorecard
Results
If you score 70% or under (High Risk), please ask your doctor about stroke prevention right away. If you score 71-80% (Caution), you’re off to a good start, but keep working on reducing your risk factors for stroke. If you score 81-100% (Low Risk), congratulations! You’re controlling your risk for stroke so far.
Factors you can control
- Alcohol: Do not consume more than one alcoholic drink per day. One alcoholic drink equals 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of table wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor.
- Atrial fibrillation (AFib): If your doctor has told you that you have an irregular heart rate, talk with your doctor about how to control this. Uncontrolled AFib increases your risk of stroke by four to five times.
- Blood pressure: Family history may play a role, but diet, exercise and medication can bring your high blood pressure under control.
- Cholesterol: Like blood pressure, cholesterol can be reduced.
- Diet: Adopt diet low in salt and low in fat.
- Exercise: Try to get 30-60 minutes of exercise each day.
- Obesity and diabetes: Obesity and diabetes greatly increase your risk for stroke. For many, lifestyle changes can reverse both of these problems.
- Smoking: Stop smoking now. Ask your doctor for resources to help you quit
Factors you cannot control
- Your age and sex: As you grow older, your risk of stroke and heart disease begins to increase and keeps increasing with age. Annually, more women than men have a stroke, but at younger ages stroke incidence is higher in men than women.
- Your family history: You have a greater risk of stroke if any of your close blood relatives have had a stroke.
- Your personal history: Previous transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) put you at a higher risk of a future stroke.