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(Stroke. 2003;34:2107.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contribution

Editorial Comment—Stroke Incidence and Quality Standard for Comparison

Department of Public Health, Aichi Prefectural College of Nursing and Health, Nagoya, Japan

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in many countries. Accordingly, the frequency of occurrence of stroke provides essential information when planning community-based programs intended for reduction of mortality. In epidemiology, incidence is widely used as the measure of the frequency of occurrence in populations. The measure is potential of community-based studies to answer additional questions based on an unbiased sample of incident cases when understanding disease etiology. In addition, the incidence also measures the density of events occurring during the observation period. Because the differences in registration procedures, case ascertainment, and diagnostic procedures¹ could result in inaccurate measure of incidence, more accurate ascertainment of the incidence is required. It needs to define clearly for whom and what it uses when measuring the incidence. If it applies to stroke, the numerator should use the individuals defined by characteristic and background who met the standardized criteria of stroke (including stroke subtypes), and denominator should use those who become ill (ie, population at risk).

Recently, stroke incidence has ranged widely among reports from different regions of the world and at different points in time using community-based stroke studies and cohort studies in many countries.^2–12 Among these reports, there was no research for which the same diagnostic criteria, diagnostic method, and population denominator were used. Comparison of stroke incidence is only meaningful when based on the same diagnostic criteria and procedures in various parts of the world. Definitions (standard criteria) and methods must be standardized for comparison.

In the early 1980s, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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