Time Trends in Survival Following First Hemorrhagic or Ischemic Stroke Between 1991 and 2015 in the Rotterdam Study

Background and Purpose- The introduction of stroke units and the implementation of evidence-based interventions have been a breakthrough in the management of patients with stroke over the past decade. Survival following stroke is an important indicator in monitoring stroke burden. Recent data on survival by stroke subtype in the general population is scarce. We assessed (1) recent temporal time trends in survival; (2) age-standardized death rates; (3) survival probabilities at 6 months, 1, 2, and 3 years following first hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke. Methods- Within the population-based Rotterdam Study between 1991 and 2015, we assessed time trends in survival among 162 with first-ever hemorrhagic and 988 patients with first-ever ischemic stroke across 3 time periods (1991-1998; 1999-2007; 2008-2015) using time-varying Cox regression model and calculated age-standardized death rates according to the European 2010 census population. Results- In the hemorrhagic stroke group, a total of 144 deaths occurred during 386 person-years. Following a hemorrhagic stroke, we observed similar mortality rates over the years with 30 per 100 person-years in 2015 compared with 25/100 person-years in 1991. Similarly, compared with the earliest study period (1991-1998), mortality rates remained unchanged in the latest study period (2008-2015; hazard ratio, 0.97 [95% CI, 0.61-1.57]; P=0.93). In the ischemic stroke group, a total of 711 deaths occurred during 4897 person-years. We observed a decline in mortality rates in 2015 (11 per 100 person-years) compared with 1991 (29/100 person-years). This translated to favorable trends in the latest study period 2008 to 2015 (hazard ratio, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.56-0.90]; P<0.01). Conclusions- Survival following ischemic stroke has improved over the past decade, while no change was observed in survival following hemorrhagic stroke.