India Faces Higher Stroke Incidence and Prevalence Compared to High-Income Countries, study reveals

The study, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research reports that stroke incidence and prevalence in India are higher compared to other high-income countries (HICs). The study also found that stroke incidents are particularly greater in Mumbai and Kolkata, and the early stroke mortality rate in India surpasses that of other HICs.

A stroke, also known as a brain attack, occurs when blood flow to your brain is interrupted. Global Burden of Disease study indicates stroke as the second leading cause of death. From 1970-1979 to 2000-2008 there has been a 100 % increase in the incidence of stroke in low- and middle-income countries which includes India.

The scarcity of reliable studies that could give an estimate of mortality and morbidity associated with stroke has led the researchers to conduct a schematic review of epidemiological studies on stroke conducted in India.

Sureshkumar Kamalakannan, International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, United Kingdom, and colleagues carried out the schematic review where they took all population-based, cross-sectional studies and cohort studies from India which reported the stroke incidence rate or cumulative stroke incidence and/or the prevalence of stroke in participants including any age group.

Researchers included studies published from 1960 to 2015 for which they used Electronic databases (Ovid, PubMed, Medline, Embase and IndMED). 10 population-based cross-sectional studies were eligible to be included out of 3079 independent titles. 

Research outcomes indicate:

• The cumulative incidence of stroke ranged from 105 to 152/100,000 persons per year, and the crude prevalence of stroke ranged from 44.29 to 559/100,000 persons in different parts of the country during the past decade.
• These values were higher than those of high-income countries.

“High-quality, population-based epidemiological studies on stroke need to be conducted to facilitate early prevention and better rehabilitation efforts for stroke-related disabilities in the country”, researchers reported.

Reference: Kamalakannan S, Gudlavalleti ASV, Gudlavalleti VSM, Goenka S, Kuper H. Incidence & prevalence of stroke in India: A systematic review. Indian J Med Res. 2017 Aug;146(2):175-185. doi: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_516_15. PMID: 29265018; PMCID: PMC5761027.