[Mortality of hospitalized stroke patients in Hungary; 2003-2005]

Abstract

The aim of our research was to assess the incidence and the 12- and 24-month mortality of hospitalized stroke in Hungary. We analyzed the rate of mortality after stroke and compared it to the standard mortality rate of the population. To assess the incidence we extracted the data of "new" stroke patients (ICD-10 diagnoses: 160-64) hospitalized in May 2003 from the database of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration. We regarded those as "new" patients who had not been treated with these primary or secondary diagnoses in the previous 24 months. Data were collected by sex and age (age groups: 25-44, 45-64, 65 and over). We analyzed the patients' survival on the basis of their April 2004 and April 2005 data. The incidence of the "new" hospitalized stroke patients was higher in men than in women; the incidence in the age group of 65 and over was 2112/100.000 in males and 1582/100.000 in females, the corresponding values in the 45-64 age group were 623 vs. 366 per 100.000, respectively. In 2003 more than 42 thousand "new" stroke patients were hospitalized in Hungary of whom over 10 thousand died in the first year, followed by a further 2 thousand in the second year. Women's survival is more favourable than men's: in the first year it is 71.47% vs. 69.24% (65+ group), and 88.18% vs. 83.16% (45-64 group); in the second year the corresponding values are 66.95% vs. 61.62% (65+), and 85.45% vs. 80.90% (45-64), respectively. The risk of death in the first year after stroke, compared to the standard population, is 5.17-fold in women and 4.70-fold in men in the total sample, and 10-15-fold in the 45-64 group. There are large differences by gender, particularly in men of the working age groups (25-44, 45-64), whose mortality is twice as high as that of women of the same age.