Stroke care in the next decades: a projection derived from a community-based study in Umbria, Italy

Recently published data show that stroke incidence is not longer declining, while case fatality rates has had a less pronounced fall in recent years than in the past. Projections of the increasing number of elderly people, combined with the greater risk of stroke in old age, suggest that in the forthcoming decades we will be faced with an increased request of health resources for patients with stroke. We have therefore used data from a community-based study on stroke incidence and outcome to project the number of first ever strokes, death from stroke and handicap from stroke in Italy, up to the year 2016. Results show that incidence will increase by 22.2%, and death at 6 months from first ever stroke by 29%. However, since patients already handicapped for other reasons are more likely to die from their stroke, the net number of newly handicapped persons will only increased by 5%. These results suggest that in the next decades the major increase in request of health care resources will result from the acute event and the immediate post-ictal phase, and not from the management of chronic handicap after a stroke.