Bushnell et al Guidelines for Prevention of Stroke in Women 1549 Age-specific stroke mortality is higher for men than women for all age groups except 85 years, and this pattern is con- sistent across all racial/ethnic groups (Figures 1 and 2).1,2,59 In 2010, age-adjusted stroke mortality (based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, codes I60 I69) for women was 38.3 per 100000 compared with 39.3 per 100000 for men (relative risk [RR], 0.97).59 For most of the past century, age-adjusted stroke mortality rates declined dra- matically in the United States,60 and between 1996 and 2005, these declines were marginally greater for men ( 28.2%) than Stroke is a major cause of death world- wide, accounting for an estimated 10% of all deaths in 2002. Similar to the United States, women worldwide have lower stroke mortality than men except in the older age groups,62 65 and IS mortality has declined for both men and women, with some acceleration in the rate of decline in the 1990s for cer- tain age-sex groups.66 Ischemic Stroke An analysis of US death certificate data from 1995 to 1998 found that IS constitutes a larger percentage of stroke mor- tality overall in women than men (82% of stroke deaths in women versus 78% in men), with the greatest difference seen for older women.67 The overall age-adjusted IS death rate in women is slightly lower (74.3 per 100000 compared with 78.8 per 100000 for men; RR, 0.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93 0.95). 