A new study has revealed that about 1 in 12 people who have suffered a stroke are very likely to suffer another one soon afterwards, and further, one in four is likely to die within a year of suffering a stroke.

Researchers have asserted that the results hint that much more attention is needed to be paid as far as the prevention of recurrent strokes goes. Stroke is the third leading cause of deaths across the US.

The research's results have been drawn after analysis of data collected from 10,399 people in South Carolina who had a hospital discharge diagnosis of stroke in 2002. The results then revealed that almost 25% of the patients who had suffered a stroke died within a year, from any cause, and another 8% suffered another stroke within a year.

"Furthermore, the risk of recurrent stroke was between three and six times higher than the risk of heart attack at different points during the study. Our findings suggest that South Carolina and possibly other parts of the United States may have a long way to go in preventing and reducing the risk factors for recurrent strokes", said researcher Wuwei (Wayne) Feng, MD, MS.

Details of the study have been published in Neurology.