Objective  To analyze the results of screening on people with high stroke risk among community residents of Ningde city, Fujian province for providing evidences to stroke screening and prevention in the population.

  Methods  Questionnaire interview and physical examination were carried out from January 2015 through December 2018 among 19 000 permanent residents aged ≥ 40 years recruited at 4 communities with random cluster sampling. Totally 8 known risk factors of stroke were adopted in the survey and the residents with 3 or more of the risk factors were assessed with high stroke risk in the screening.

  Results  Among the 18 039 with complete information, 2 438 (13.52%) were identified with high stroke risk. The proportion of high risk individuals was significantly higher among the male residents than among the female residents (16.39% vs. 10.54%, χ² = 132.05; P < 0.001) and the proportion of high stroke risk individuals differed significantly by age for the residents, with the proportions of 2.76%, 9.38%, 15.18%, 29.41%, and 31.81% among the residents aged 40 – 49, 50 – 59, 60 – 69, 70 – 79, and ≥ 80 years (χ² = 1282.84, P < 0.001). The prevalence rates of stroke risk factors were 74.69% for hypertension, 69.77% for lack of physical exercise, 41.35% for smoking, 36.22% for dyslipidemia, 28.14% for diabetes, 17.56% for obvious overweight and obesity, 9.19% for family stroke history, and 1.31% for atrial fibrillation or valvular heart disease, respectively; there were significant gender and between age differences in the prevalence rates among the residents (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  Among middle-aged and elderly community residents in Ningde city, Fujian province, the proportion of high stroke risk individuals is relatively low but the proportion is high among the males and those aged 60 years and above; the top three prevalent stroke risk factors are hypertension, lack of physical exercise and smoking.