The Health Ministry has planned a national stroke prevention program in a bid to help lower stroke mortality rates, deputy for research and technology at the ministry, Reza Malek-Zadeh, said.
The program is currently being piloted in some cities including Shahreza in Isfahan Province and Kermanshah, the capital of Kermanshah Province, and will soon be implemented nationwide, IRNA quoted him as saying.
As part of the program, each person’s stroke risk is assessed based on factors such as height, weight, abdominal fat, blood pressure and blood lipids.
“The stroke prevention program aims at implementing stroke risk assessment for all individuals upon reaching 40 years of age, as available data indicates that a large percentage of stroke deaths in Iran occur before the age of 50,” said the expert.
Experts have often warned that the average age of stroke in Iran is lower than the global average. Annually, nearly 160,000 people suffer from strokes in the country, of whom 20,000 do not survive.
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