Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2014 Jun 26;9(6):e100724.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100724. eCollection 2014.

An estimate of the incidence and prevalence of stroke in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Davies Adeloye  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

An estimate of the incidence and prevalence of stroke in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Davies Adeloye. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Stroke is increasingly becoming a challenging public health issue in Africa, and the non-availability of data has limited research output and consequently the response to this burden. This study aimed to estimate the incidence and prevalence of stroke in Africa in 2009 towards improved policy response and management of the disease in the region.

Methods: A systematic search of Medline, EMBASE and Global Health for original population-based or hospital-based studies on stroke was conducted. A random effect meta-analysis was conducted on crude stroke incidence and prevalence rates, and a meta-regression-like epidemiological model was applied on all data points. The fitted curve generated from the model was used to estimate incident cases of stroke and number of stroke survivors in Africa at midpoints of the United Nation population 5-year age groups for the year 2009.

Results: The literature search yielded a total of 1227 studies. 19 studies from 10 African countries were selected. 483 thousand new stroke cases among people aged 15 years or more were estimated in Africa in 2009, equivalent to 81.2 (13.2-94.9)/100,000 person years. A total of 1.89 million stroke survivors among people aged 15 years or more were estimated in Africa in 2009, with a prevalence of 317.3 (314.0-748.2)/100,000 population. Comparable figures for the year 2013 based on the same rates would amount to 535 thousand (87.0-625.3) new stroke cases and 2.09 million (2.06-4.93) stroke survivors, suggesting an increase of 10.8% and 9.6% of incident stroke cases and stroke survivors respectively, attributable to population growth and ageing between 2009 and 2013.

Conclusion: The findings of this review suggest the burden of stroke in Africa is high and still increasing. There is need for more research on stroke and other vascular risk factors towards instituting appropriate policy, and effective preventive and management measures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow diagram of search strategy.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Pooled crude incidence rates of stroke from population-based studies.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Pooled crude incidence rates of stroke from hospital-based studies.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Pooled crude prevalence rates of stroke survivors from population-based studies.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Bubble graph showing relationship between age and crude incidence of stroke, with size of bubble corresponding to sample size.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Bubble graph showing relationship between age and crude prevalence of stroke survivors, with size of bubble corresponding to sample size.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Feigin VL, Forouzanfar MH, Krishnamurthi R, Mensah GA, Connor M, et al. (2014) Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990–2010: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 383: 245–255. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chin JH (2012) Stroke in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Urgent Call For Prevention. Neurology 78: 1007–1008. - PubMed
    1. Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Alleyne G, Horton R, Li L, et al. (2011) UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases: addressing four questions. Lancet 378: 449–455. - PubMed
    1. Strong K, Mathers CD, Bonita R (2007) Preventing stroke: saving lives around the world. Lancet Neurol 6: 182–187. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (2004) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2002 estimates. World Health Report 2004. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.