Risk Factors for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, Heart Attack, Stroke (Brain Attack), or Hypertension

• A family history of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, heart attack or stroke
• Diagnosis of high blood pressure (hypertension)
• High blood cholesterol levels
• Heart disease, especially an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation
• Diabetes
• Stress
• Cigarette smoking
• Obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Transient ischemic attacks (TIA’s). These are brief attacks that can cause neurologic deficits, which resolve over a short period of time
• Prior heart attack or stroke
• The incidence of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in males is about 5times more prevalent and 5 times more frequent as a cause of death, the difference in prevalence between the sexes diminishes with increasing age, and is equal beyond 85 years of age
• The risk of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is 11.6-fold in a first-degree relative of a patient diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm
• The incidence of stroke is about 30% higher in men than women, although more women die of strokes each year than from breast cancer
• African-American men and women have a significantly increased risk of stroke compared to Caucasians and Hispanics
• 50 percent of people over the age of 65 have hypertension
• Age over 45 for males; age over 55 for females
• Postmenopausal women are at greater risk for heart disease than pre-menopausal women