Forty Years of Descriptive Epidemiology of Stroke

Accurate knowledge of epidemiological features is crucial to facilitate healthcare planning, prevention, and management of stroke. This article aims to provide an overview of the major advances in descriptive epidemiology of stroke over the past forty years, from the pioneering studies to the development of quality criteria for the conduct of population-based incidence registries, and the implementation of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) study. Several current challenges are highlighted, including the demographic transition and aging of the population, which are dramatically increasing the number of stroke patients each year and the global burden of the disease worldwide, thus calling for additional efforts and new paradigms to improve prevention and reduce this demographical impact.