Stroke in young adults

Abstract

Background: Stroke among young adults is generally considered a rare event, although few studies have considered national data.

Objective: The objective of this paper was to profile stroke in young adults in the United States using a national dataset.

Methods: Data from the 2007 Nationwide Inpatient Sample were examined to estimate the number of patients, mean length of stay, mean costs, and discharge disposition of young adults (aged 18-44 y) with a diagnosis of stroke.

Results: Estimates indicate that 41,587 (or 4.9%) of individuals experiencing a stroke in 2007 were young adults: 32,438 had an ischemic stroke, 4662 had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and 4487 had an intracerebral hemorrhage. The average length of stay was 4.7 days for ischemic stroke, 11.6 days for subarachnoid hemorrhage, and 11.2 days for intracerebral hemorrhage. Approximately 5% (2013) of young adults died of stroke. Most young adults were discharged routinely to home at an average cost associated with their hospital stay of $34,886 for ischemic stroke, $146,307 for subarachnoid hemorrhage, and $94,482 for intracerebral hemorrhage.

Conclusions: A substantial number of young adults experience stroke in the United States at costs that are higher than those for stroke patients overall.