Credit: Penn Medicine/Michael Mullen
Penn Medicine researchers identified clusters of “hot” spots - counties where the mortality rate from stroke was as much as 40 percent higher than the national average and 1.5 times higher than mortality of patients in “cool” spots - were found in the southeastern United States, but extended farther west and north than the traditionally defined “stroke belt.” In addition, researchers found isolated areas of low stroke mortality clustered within hot spots and isolated areas of high stroke mortality clustered within cool spots.