Stroke Foundation community stroke adviser Judith Hyslop said the seminar aimed to promote a healthy lifestyle to reduce the risk of stroke.
In New Zealand, 24 people a day had a stroke, she said.
''What frightens us is that 25% of people experiencing stroke [in New Zealand] are under 65 years old,'' she said, hence the reason for the healthy lifestyles theme.
Foundation Southern general manager Neil McIntosh, of Christchurch, said about 9000 people had a stroke in New Zealand each year and a third of those died at the time of the stroke.
The study findings, published yesterday in medical journal The Lancet, come from the first comprehensive and comparable analysis of the regional and country-specific burden of the killer condition, traditionally associated with old age, between 1990 and 2010.
The Global Burden of Disease Study's lead author, Prof Valery Feigin, director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences at AUT University, said the worldwide stroke burden was growing fast.
''There is now an urgent need for culturally acceptable and affordable stroke prevention, management and rehabilitation strategies to be developed and implemented worldwide,'' he said.
''This is the first study to compare incidence and impacts of stroke between countries on a global scale.
''Now every country in the world has estimates of their stroke burden, based on the best available evidence.''
For New Zealand, the results are a mixed bag.
The number of Kiwis dying of strokes has halved in the past 20 years, matching trends in most other developed countries.
Stroke survival had also jumped, by 82%, due to better acute care.
But it came at a cost, Prof Feigin said, given that 75% of stroke survivors required rehabilitation services, which were already under a heavy strain.
''Stroke remains the No 3 cause of death for New Zealanders,'' he said.
The seminar, attended by about 50 people, was the first of many the newly streamlined foundation had planned for the South Island, Mr McIntosh said.
A new foundation organisation structure was launched in July, he said.
The foundation was more than 30 years old and had been divided into four regions across New Zealand.
That structure was ''terrible'' for fundraising and sponsorship gathering, so services such as banking and payroll had been amalgamated, he said.
''Together, we can do so much more for the stroke community.''
The foundation was working on a 20-year-plan, he said.
''Stroke will always be there.''
- additional reporting APNZ
