Trends in stroke incidence and impact in populations

The aim of this project is to determine the impact of prevention strategies and improvements in stroke healthcare services on the incidence and outcome of stroke in different populations over recent decades.

Methods

Analyses of datasets from the following studies will be undertaken:

• Auckland Regional Community Stroke Study (ARCOS): There have been three stroke incidence studies conducted in Auckland over the past two decades in 1981-1982, 1991-1992 and 2002-2003. Similar definitions and methodology were used across the three studies to maintain comparability.
• Perth Community Stroke Study (PCSS): There have been three stroke incidence studies conducted in Perth over the past two decades in 1989-1990, 1995-1996 and 2000-2001. Similar definitions and methodology were used across the three studies to maintain comparability.

Both the ARCOS and PCSS studies have been shown to meet the stringent criteria for an 'ideal' stroke incidence study providing the most reliable data on the incidence and outcome from stroke in a population.

Trends in the incidence of stroke will be investigated using crude and standardised rates by subgroups (age, sex and ethnicity). Trends in survival and outcome will be conducted using Kaplan Meier estimates, logistic regression and proportional hazards modelling.

Data from the above studies will be pooled with similar high-quality datasets from the University of Queensland, Australia and the University of Oxford, UK to better understand risk factors for various stroke subtypes and the organisation of various management strategies.

Status

All studies have been completed and the data is cleaned and ready for analysis.

Publications

There have been a number of publications from the original ARCOS and PCSS studies. Results of the trend analyses were published in the medical journal, Stroke, in February 2008.