The Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a major study focusing on learning more about the factors that increase a person's risk of having a stroke.

The purpose of the REGARDS project is to understand why people in some parts of the country develop more strokes than people in other parts of the country, and why African-Americans develop more strokes than whites. We are interested in factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, diet and other factors and how they are related to the risk of stroke. We hope to learn how to reduce the number of people having strokes.

If you are a participant in REGARDS, you are one of abut 30,000 people aged 45 years and older who has been selected at random (by chance) from the community. You were selected by chance from lists of people to represent your region of the country. By your participation in this national project, you will get some valuable information about your health and give the medical and scientific community some valuable information about why some people develop stroke and others do not.

Sincerely,

George Howard, DrPH
Principal Investigator