A prospective community-based study of stroke in Kolkata, India.
OBJECTIVE
Information on essential stroke parameters are lacking in India. This population-based study on stroke disorder was undertaken in the city of Kolkata, India, to determine the subtypes, prevalence, incidence, and case fatality rates of stroke.


METHODS
This was a longitudinal descriptive study comprising 2-stage door-to-door survey of a stratified randomly selected sample of the city population, conducted twice per year for 2 successive years from March 2003 to February 2005.


RESULTS
Out of the screened population of 52,377 (27 626 men, 24 751 women), the age standardized prevalence rate of stroke to world standard population is 545.10 (95% CI, 479.86 to 617.05) per 100,000 persons. The age standardized average annual incidence rate to world standard population of first-ever-in-a-lifetime stroke is 145.30 (95% CI, 120.39 to 174.74) per 100,000 persons per year. Thirty-day case fatality rate is 41.08% (95% CI, 30.66 to 53.80). Women have higher incidence and case fatality rates. Despite divergence on socioeconomic status between the slum and nonslum dwellers, stroke parameters were not significantly different.


CONCLUSIONS
The age standardized prevalence and incidence rates of stroke in this study are similar to or higher than many Western nations. The overall case fatality rate is among the highest category of stroke fatality in the world. The women have higher incidence and case fatality rates compared with men.
Das
Shyamal K
SK
Bangur Institute of Neurology, Kolkata 700025, India. das_sk70@hotmail.com
Banerjee
Tapas K
TK
Biswas
Atanu
A
Roy
Trishit
T
Raut
Deepak K
DK
Mukherjee
Chandra S
CS
Chaudhuri
Arijit
A
Hazra
Avijit
A
Roy
Jayanta
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D020521:Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*