Current status of stroke epidemiology in Greece: A panorama

Abstract

Although strokes have been documented since about 3 millennia, they remain today as one of the leading causes of mortality, as well as of subsequent serious long-term physical and mental morbidity, among patients in many different countries all over the world. Greece presents an increase in mortality rates according to World Health Organization, and this fact underlines the need for early diagnosis and treatment, as well as, the need to implement effective prevention strategies for strokes. This review makes an effort to describe the current status of stroke epidemiological features, as well as to present the risk factors prevalent in Greece. The incidence rate is 261-319/100,000 based on the recent population based registry. Stroke appears to be more prevalent in men than in women, and the mean age of stroke onset in Greece is at 70 years of age. Hypertension, atrial fibrillation, dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus are the major risk factors of stroke in the Greek population, while smoking is the most commonly documented modifiable risk factor in young adults with ischemic stroke. Similar to other parts of the world, ischemic stroke is the most common stroke type. The 28-day case fatality rate for men and women was 26.5%. The mean in-hospital cost per stroke patient was 3624.9 € and the mean rehabilitation cost of outpatients with stroke was 5553.3 €, while the cost proportion of hemorrhagic stroke is higher when compared to ischemic stroke. Stroke is a devastating condition with recognized challenges in identifying effective prevention programs. In Greece, limited data exists regarding the epidemiology of strokes. As a result, the need to conduct new studies and researches across the country is well documented.

Time Trends in Ischemic Stroke among Type 2 Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Patients: Analysis of the Spanish National Hospital Discharge Data (2003-2012)

“…Our results contrast with the decline on the incidence described in the last few decades in our country [ 24 ] and other international series [ 25 , 26 ] attributed to the measures adopted to control risk factors. Similarly, in Greece, Vasiliadis et al reports a decline of almost 20% despite the projection on stroke incidence as a result of economic crisis [ 27 ]. It is worth noting that the mentioned Greek study finished in 2002 and the impact of economic crisis could be more important in recent years.…”

Efficacy of elaborated semantic features analysis in Aphasia: a quasi-randomised controlled trial

“…Recruiting from a variety of geographic settings and from both state and private hospitals / rehabilitation centres ensured social and economic biases in participant selection were minimized. As a result, the demographic characteristics of the study sample were similar to the Greek stroke population (Vasiliadis & Zikić, 2014). In terms of eligibility criteria, in order to detect the effects of treatment in specific conditions, RCTs typically have inclusion and exclusion criteria that are quite restrictive.…”

Extraction and separation of lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors from Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf based on a hyphenated technique and in vitro methods

“…Stroke is the second most common cause of death worldwide . Previous reports have indicated that the number of people suffering from stroke is increasing.…”