Original ArticleMetabolic Syndrome Associated with Ischemic Stroke among the Mexican Hispanic Population in the El Paso/US-Mexico Border Region

The Hispanic population carries a disproportionate burden of stroke compared with the non-Hispanic White population. Most studies have been conducted on Caribbean Hispanics, indicating a need to better understand the characteristics of stroke and its prevalence among the Hispanic populations of Mexican descent. In this report, data were collected in the El Paso/US-Mexico border region, where 82% of the population is Mexican Hispanic, through a retrospective study of ischemic stroke from 2005-2010. Odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals, logistic regression, and multivariate analysis of the ORs adjusted for other variables, were used to analyze the effects of various risk factors on ischemic stroke. The metabolic syndrome and its components, specifically hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia appeared to be strongly associated with ischemic stroke in the Mexican Hispanic population. Mexican Hispanic ischemic stroke patients were nearly 7 times more likely to have this syndrome, compared with Mexican Hispanic controls from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Likewise, the patients were nearly 40 times more likely to have hypertension and 11 times more likely to have diabetes. Efforts to prevent ischemic stroke and limit its impact in the Mexican Hispanic population should focus on controlling hypertension and diabetes.