Perhaps no illness strikes as much denial of fear as
stroke. Healthy one moment, potentially
life like disability the next. Whether
thromboembolic or hemorrhagic, the consequences can be profound, the impacts on
family disturbing.
Yet, stroke takes second fiddle to heart disease in all
aspects. It ranks third in causes of
Canadian deaths with an estimated 50,000 new strokes every year. Six times as many live with the consequences
of a stroke, just over 1% of the Canadian population. Only 1/3rd of
stroke victims recover all or most of their function, 40% are moderately or
severely disabled, 10% require long term care, and 15% die from the initial
insult. Learn more at the great organization, although infamously
named Heart
and Stroke Foundation statistical information where stoke remains in the
shadows.
PHAC has a developed
a vested interest in stroke, and more in an upcoming posting. See details of their work at PHAC
synthesis 2011.
The notable change in the graph is that while numbers of
deaths have remained fairly constant, rates of deaths, hospitalization, and
numbers of hospitalizations have been consistently decreasing since the early
90’s. The benefits of reduced smoking,
better blood pressure control, lipid control efforts, and in some cases low
dose anti-thrombotics (ie. low dose aspirin).
Further improvements would require stemming the increase in
diabetes, increasing physical activity further and lots of discussion on
reducing salt consumption (see DrPHealth
Jan 2012 Sodium reduction).
Overall, a hidden public health success story, that barely
makes the public health agenda. One of
the reasons, three of the main preventive actions result from using pharmacotherapy
– and perhaps a strong indication on the need to collaborate on disease
prevention efforts that combine drugs with lifestyle interventions.
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