Objective: To estimate changes in rates of cerebral infarction and intracerebral hemorrhage, comorbidity profile, and case fatality rates in Quebec over 15 years.
Methods: A population-based admission-to-discharge cohort study was conducted, selecting first stroke events from hospital discharge data (MedEcho) from 1988 to 2002.
Results: In this study (involving 101,831 persons with cerebral infarctions and 11,215 persons with intracerebral hemorrhages), there was a downturn in the rates of cerebral infarction over 15 years, especially during the last 5 years (32.5% decline for men and 25.5% for women). A concomitant increase in rates of intracerebral hemorrhage, 28% increase for men (2%/year) and 22% for women (1.6%/year), was also noted. Although age and comorbidity of the population increased, case fatality decreased over time. Age and type of stroke were strong predictors for early (< or =7 days) and later (8 to 30 days) case fatality, whereas comorbidity was important only for later death. In-hospital bed stay declined dramatically over time for all discharge destinations.
Conclusions: A significant decrease in rates of cerebral infarction and a rise in rates of intracerebral hemorrhage were noted in Quebec over 15 years. Age and comorbidity of the population increased. Although stroke is increasingly a condition of the elderly, ill population, case fatality and in-hospital bed stay declined over time.