Background: Stroke is the leading public health problem globally. Stroke management largely depends on non-drug interventions. Stroke care units are facilities in hospitals that showed patients increased survival, return home, and regain independence in daily activities. This study was aimed to assess clinical profile, in-hospital outcome and its associated factors of stroke after the start of a standard organized stroke care unit in the study area. Method: Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted from July 2015 to September 2017. A total of 151 stroke patients with computed tomography (CT) scan result were included in the study. Data was collected using standardized questionnaire from secondary sources like patients medical records. Binary logistic regression were fitted to identify predictor variables. Adjusted Odds ratio(OR) with 95% confidence interval was computed and variables with p-value less than 0.05 in the multi-variable regression model considered as significantly associated with the dependent variables. Result: Ischemic stroke (60.3%) subtype was the most common. The median age at presentation was 65 (IQR: 55-75) years. Hypertension (49.7%) and carotid atherosclerosis (54.7%) were the most commonly identified risk factors. Overall In-hospital mortality was 9.3% (95% CI: 5.2%-15.1%), poor disability outcome at discharge was 55.6% (95%CI: 47.3%-63.7%), and median length of hospital stay was 10 (IQR: 7-14) days. Being male (AOR=0.19, 95%CI: 0.038 0.97), longer in-hospital stays (AOR=0.21, 95%CI: 0.048 0.93) were significant predictors of in-hospital mortality. Furthermore increased ICP (AOR=2.81, 95%CI: 1.22 6.92) was also the predictor of poor disability outcome at discharge. Conclusion: In-hospital mortality was lower than previous studies. However post-discharge disability is higher. Male sex, length of in-hospital stay, was significant predictors of in-hospital mortality. Increased intracranial pressure was also significant predictor of poor disability outcome at discharge. Key words: In hospital outcome, Mortality, poor outcome, stroke care unit, Gondar

Background: Epidemiological transitions and widespread risk factors made stroke common health problem in sub-Saharan countries in the early age. Stroke management largely depends on non-drug interventions. Stroke care units are facilities in hospitals which increased patient survival, return home, and regain independence in daily activities. This study was aimed to assess clinical profile, in-hospital outcome and its associated factors of stroke after the start of a standard organized stroke care unit in the study area. Method: An institution based cross-sectional study was employed from July 2015 to September 2017. A total of 151 stroke patients with computed tomography (CT) scan result were included in the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire from secondary sources of patient medical records. In-hospital mortality and poor post-stroke disability (greater functional impairment, when Modified Rankin Scale score (mRS) ≥3) were outcome variables. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify predictor variables. Adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) used to assess the strength of association. Variables with p-value less than 0.05 in the multi-variable regression model was considered as significantly associated with the dependent variables. Result: Ischemic stroke (60.3%) subtype was the most common. The median age at presentation was 65 (IQR: 55-75) years. Hypertension (49.7%) and carotid atherosclerosis (54.7%) were the most commonly identified risk factors. Overall in-hospital mortality was 9.3% (95% CI: 5.2%-15.1%), poor post-stroke disability was 55.6% (95%CI: 47.3%-63.7%), and median length of hospital stay was 10 (IQR: 7-14) days. Being male (AOR=0.19, 95%CI: 0.038 0.97), longer in-hospital stays (AOR=0.21, 95%CI: 0.048 0.93) were significant predictors of in-hospital mortality. Furthermore increased ICP (AOR=2.81, 95%CI: 1.22 6.92) was also the predictor of poor post-stroke disability at discharge. Conclusion: Ischemic stroke was the most common stroke subtype. In-hospital mortality was relatively lower. However, greater functional impairment was high at discharge. Stroke morality was observed lower among male and longer in-hospital stay patients, while evidence of increased intracranial pressure was associated with poor post-stroke disability at discharge.