Strokes in the elderly: prevalence, risk factors & the strategies for prevention

Current demographic trends suggest that the Indian population will survive through the peak years of occurrence of stroke (age 55-65 yr) and stroke-survivors in the elderly with varying degree of residual disability, will be a major medical problem. The available data from community surveys from different regions of India for 'hemiplegia' presumed to be of vascular origin indicate a crude prevalence rate in the range of 200 per 100,000 persons. Thus, the anticipated costs of rehabilitation of stroke-victims will pose enormous socio-economic burden on our meagre health-care resources, similar to what is now faced by industrialised nations in the West. Therefore, prevention of strokes at any age should be our main strategy in national health planning. Among all risk factors for strokes, hypertension is one of the most important and treatable factor. Community screening surveys, by well defined WHO protocol, have shown that nearly 15 per cent of the urban population is 'hypertensive' (160/95 mm Hg or more). Though high blood pressure has the highest attributable risk for stroke, there are many reasons such as patient's compliance in taking medicines and poor follow up in clinical practice that may lead to failure in reducing stroke mortality. In subjects who have transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs), regular use of antiplatelet agents like aspirin in prevention of stroke is well established. It is also mandatory to prohibit tobacco use and adjust dietary habits to control body weight, and associated conditions like diabetes mellitus etc., should be treated. It is advisable to initiate community screening surveys on well defined populations for early detection of hypertension and TIAs. Primary health care centres should be the base-stations for these surveys because data gathered from urban hospitals will not truly reflect the crude prevalence rates for the community to design practical prevention programmes.