Global stroke statistics.

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Accurate, up-to-date data on stroke incidence, mortality, and case-fatality are crucial for effective healthcare planning and prevention strategies.
• Previous reviews have established a foundation, but continuous updates are necessary to reflect current global health landscapes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To update global stroke incidence and mortality data by country.
• To expand the analysis to include stroke case-fatality rates.
• To explore the complementary role of national clinical registries in stroke data collection.

Main Methods:

• Conducted an updated literature review for stroke incidence (May 2013-May 2016) and case-fatality (1980-May 2016).
• Acquired and analyzed stroke event data from the World Health Organization (WHO) mortality database.
• Extracted mortality codes (ICD-8, ICD-9, ICD-10) and used population denominators to calculate crude and age-adjusted mortality rates.

Main Results:

• Fifty-one countries provided stroke incidence data; four new studies met quality criteria, with adjusted incidence ranging from 76 to 119 per 100,000 population annually.
• Stroke incidence exceeded male rates only in Martinique; eight countries with limited incidence data utilized national clinical registries.
• Of 128 countries reporting mortality data to WHO, highest crude mortality was in Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and Greece; both crude mortality and incidence correlated positively with the proportion of the population aged ≥65 years.

Conclusions:

• This review presents current global data on stroke incidence, case-fatality, and mortality, highlighting significant regional variations.
• There is a notable increase in the use of national clinical registries to provide stroke estimates, supplementing traditional community-based studies.
• The findings underscore the importance of ongoing data collection and the evolving role of registries in understanding stroke epidemiology.