Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases
Volume 18, Issue 1 , Pages 11-16, January 2009

Stroke in Spain: Epidemiologic Incidence and Patterns; A Health Sentinel Network Study

  • Tomás Vega, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Observatorio de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to Tomás Vega, MD, PhD, Observatorio de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Paseo de Zorrilla, 1, 47007 Valladolid, Spain.
    • ,
  • Oscar Zurriaga, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Área de Epidemiología, Consellería de Sanitat, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain
    • ,
  • Julián Mauro Ramos, MD

      Affiliations

    • Servicio de Epidemiología, Consejería de Sanidad y Consumo, Junta de Extremadura, Merida, Spain
    • ,
  • Milagros Gil, BS

      Affiliations

    • Observatorio de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain
    • ,
  • Rufino Álamo, MS

      Affiliations

    • Observatorio de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain
    • ,
  • José Eugenio Lozano, MS

      Affiliations

    • Observatorio de Salud Pública, Consejería de Sanidad, Junta de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain
    • ,
  • Aurora López, MD

      Affiliations

    • Área de Epidemiología, Consellería de Sanitat, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain
    • ,
  • Maria Teresa Miralles, BS

      Affiliations

    • Área de Epidemiología, Consellería de Sanitat, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain
    • ,
  • Pilar Vaca, MD

      Affiliations

    • Servicio de Epidemiología, Consejería de Sanidad y Consumo, Junta de Extremadura, Merida, Spain
    • ,
  • Maria del Mar Alvarez, MD

      Affiliations

    • Servicio de Epidemiología, Consejería de Sanidad y Consumo, Junta de Extremadura, Merida, Spain
    • ,
  • on behalf of the group of research for the RECENT project

Received 11 April 2008; received in revised form 19 May 2008; accepted 9 June 2008.

Introduction

Cerebrovascular disease is among the 4 main causes of mortality in Spain. The objective of this study was to estimate the incidence of stroke and to describe the principal risk factors and other clinical and epidemiologic patterns found in patients.

Methods

Doctors from the Spanish sentinel health network recorded the episodes of acute cerebrovascular diseases in 2005 in a population of 201,205 inhabitants older than 14 years. The information of the patients (age and sex) and the episode (e.g., duration, symptoms, origin, medical attention, risk factors) was collected on a standard form.

Results

The estimated incidence rate of stroke was 141 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (confidence interval [CI] 95%: 125-158), 134 (95% CI: 112-157) in women and 148 (95% CI: 124-172) in men. The incidence increases significantly from the age of 65 years and men younger than this have higher rates than women. In all, 12% of patients with stroke die within the first 24 hours.

Conclusions

Incidence of cerebrovascular disease in Spain is below that recorded in other countries. There is no difference according to sex, but incidence among young and middle-aged men is greater than that among women. Significant variations from some population groups to others are observed, maybe because of the difference in the prevalence of risk factors.

Key Words: Stroke, incidence studies, Spain

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 This study has been partly financed by a grant for research projects from the Ministry of Health and Consumption's programme for the promotion of biomedical research and research into health sciences, documents 03/0598, 03/0864, and 03/1592, which correspond to the coordinated project entitled “Applications of a homogeneous epidemiological, clinical and public health research model in primary care with sentinel networks” (RECENT project).

PII: S1052-3057(08)00151-1

doi:10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2008.06.010

Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases
Volume 18, Issue 1 , Pages 11-16, January 2009

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