The REGARDS (REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) study will be funded through 2023 by a $20.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). It has received nearly $100 million in grant funding since it began in 2003.

The study, based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, is run by a team of biostatisticians, epidemiologists, hematologists, psychologists, neuropsychologists and neurologists. The team includes collaborators from the University of Vermont, University of Cincinnati, Indiana University, Drexel University and Columbia University.

The goal of the study is to better understand racial and regional differences in deaths from strokes in the United States. More than 30,000 people have participated in the study since it began. Researchers initially assessed stroke risks in 30,329 black and white people ages 45 and older between 2003 and 2007. They recently finished visiting more than half of the patients for second in-person assessments and follow-up exams. Some of the study participants have been in the study for 14 years.

Lead study principal investigator George Howard, DrPH, UAB professor of biostatistics in the School of Public Health, says the study participants are the heroes of this work.