Editorial on the paper by Leung et al. “Associations between body-mass index and second-hand smoke exposure and stroke recurrence in Chinese patients in Xi’an, Shantou, and Chongqing: a multicentre cross-sectional survey”

The global burden of stroke is significant with an annual incidence of more than 15 million first-ever strokes and nearly six million deaths every year. Considering demographic changes with ageing population, further increase of stroke rates is expected (1,2). Moreover, stroke also increasingly affects younger patients—recent data suggest that about 15% of all patients with stroke are younger than age of 65 years (3).