THURSDAY, March 19, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Younger stroke survivors have more difficulty concentrating and doing errands alone than older stroke survivors, according to a study published online Feb. 26 in Geriatrics.
Molly M. Jacobs, Ph.D., and Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D., from the University of Florida in Gainesville, examined how functional, mental, and physical health outcomes differ between younger (younger than 50 years) and older (50 years and older) stroke survivors.
The researchers found that younger stroke survivors were more likely to report difficulty concentrating or remembering compared with older adults (41.1 versus 23.2 percent) and to report difficulty doing errands alone (27.11 versus 23.67 percent); however, they were less likely to report difficulty walking or climbing stairs (34.3 versus 47.6 percent). Compared with older adults, younger adults with stroke reported significantly more poor mental health days (10.81 versus 5.76). There was a consistent association seen for being out of work or out of the labor force with greater odds of functional limitations (odds ratio, 2.07 for activity difficulty) and with higher counts of poor mental and physical health days in adjusted models. Significantly higher odds of difficulty concentrating (odds ratio, 2.02) and increased days of poor mental and physical health (incidence rate ratios, 1.27 and 1.26, respectively) were seen for younger stroke survivors who were out of the labor force.
"With the growing rate of stroke among individuals under 50, the medical establishment has to acknowledge that young stroke survivors require age-specific rehabilitation strategies that include different components than they do for older stroke survivors," Jacobs said in a statement.