SAN FRANCISCO - A long-term research project taking place in the Stroke Belt shows that fewer than half of the people who experience symptoms of a stroke actually seek medical attention.

The latest findings from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study were presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2007 by principal investigator Dr. Virginia J. Howard from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The REGARDS study involves whites and blacks aged 45 and older enrolled since 2003. They are all residents of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Investigators are attempting to understand why stroke occurs more often in this region of the country and why stroke death rates are higher among blacks.

For the current report, Howard's team focused on what subjects did when they experienced stroke symptoms, and what specific symptoms they felt.

The study included 451 patients who had been diagnosed by a physician as having a stroke and 2,124 people who had had stroke symptoms but had not received a stroke diagnosis from a physician.

Of the latter group, more than two-thirds had experienced one symptom of stroke and nearly one-quarter had at least two symptoms. The most common symptom was sudden numbness in an extremity, which was experienced by approximately 47 percent of the subjects.

Howard reported that over 51 percent of subjects with undiagnosed symptoms did not seek medical care.

"The message for both physicians and patients is to pursue stroke symptoms," Howard told Reuters Health in an interview after her presentation.

"We need to get away from the mindset of waiting to contact a physician only if symptoms persist," she asserted. "We need patients to get away from that fear of calling."

For their part, doctors should "tell their patients about the symptoms of stroke. There's a lot to remember, so that's why using (mnemonics like) FAST -- face, arms, speech and time -- are important ... Also, patients should be told about the importance of the suddenness of a symptom, or if there are multiple symptoms."