Abstract WP203: Stroke Statistics of South Korea in the 1st Decade of the 12th Century

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to summarize the data of epidemiology, risk factors, characteristics and outcomes of patients, and acute stroke care of South Korea in the first decade of the 21th century Methods: We searched relevant reports of government or related organizations and published articles and summarized the most representative data. Results: Every 5 minutes stroke attacks someone (≈105,000 incidence/year), and every 20 minutes stroke kills someone (≈26,000 stroke death/year) in South Korea. Stroke accounts for ≈1 of every 10 deaths. The estimated nationwide annual disability-adjusted life years lost to stroke was ≈344,000. An estimated prevalence of stroke in people with ≥30 years of age is 795,000. Nationwide total cost for stroke care was estimated to be US$ 3.3 billion in 2005, which must be much greater now. The annual stroke death rate substantially decreased by 28.3% during the first decade of the 21th century (74.2 per 100,000 person-years in 2001 and 53.2 per 100,000 person-years in 2010). The proportion of ischemic stroke has steadily increased and accounted for 76% of all strokes in 2009. According to hospital registry studies, the 90-day mortality rate was 3-7% for ischemic stroke and 17% for intracerebral hemorrhage. For risk factors, one in 3-4 Korean adults has hypertension, one in 10 diabetes mellitus, one in 7 hypercholesterolemia, and one in 3 obesity. Nearly 50% of men are current smokers, whereas less than 10% of women are smokers. Korean hospitals are likely to provide a high quality of acute stroke care as reflected in more than 90% of the average performance rate for most of quality indicators for acute stroke care. Intravenous TPA treatment for acute ischemic stroke has increased from 4.6% in 2005 to 8.7% in 2008 and 7.9% in 2010, and the proportion of IV-TPA treatment within 1 hour after hospital arrival was 58%. Among OECD countries, South Korea had the lowest in-hospital 30-day case-fatality rate for ischemic stroke and ranked third lowest for hemorrhagic stroke in 2009. Conclusion: This report would be a valuable resource for clinicians, researchers, healthcare policy makers, and public to establish health care planning and to guide a future research direction in South Korea and for comparison of stroke statistics among countries.