On Current Prevalence Across Gender, Age and Main Risk Factors Associated with the Different Types of Strokes in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

Stroke occurs when an artery to the brain becomes blocked or ruptures, resulting in death of an area of the brain tissue due to loss of its blood supply. It is the main cause of morbidity and death worldwide and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it has been estimated that 70% of all strokes will occur in low and middle income countries by the year 2030. Stroke is a huge burden in Nigeria and places a major financial burden on people and the inadequate health care resources in the country. This study aims to evaluate the current significant risk factors responsible for the prevalence of the various types of strokes in Nigeria. The data used in this study are secondary data collected from 907 patients’ medical records at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba. The multinomial logistic regression analysis method was adopted to evaluate the association of the different age groups and sex, and to determine the impact of the risk factors on the various types of strokes. Out of the 907 stroke patients data used in this study, 457 (50.39%) were females while 450 (49.61%) were males, and the age group 61-80 years were mostly affected 426 (46.97%) by stroke. The study showed that 461 (50.83%) patients had ischemic stroke followed by right hemispheric stroke 106 (11.69%) while 39 (4.30%) of patients had acute stoke which was the lowest type of stroke recorded. The risk factors found in this study were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic anemia, as well as malaria and pneumonia which are emerging two new risk factors. The dominant risk factors were hypertension, followed by diabetes mellitus, heart disease, malaria and pneumonia. The results also showed that there is an association between sex, age groups and the risk factors on the various types of strokes.