American men are about 60% more likely than their European counterparts to have a stroke, said Mauricio Avendano, Ph.D., of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference. And American women are twice as likely to have a stroke as European women.He noted that the ‘big three’ stroke risk factors — smoking, obesity and diabetes — were all more common in the U.S. than in Europe.