ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the benefit of a long-term community-based stroke prevention program, we explored 35 years of surveillance data of stroke incidence for residents in a rural area in Japan. METHOD: The surveyed community was Ikawa town (population in 2000 was 6,116) in Akita prefecture, where a community-based stroke prevention program has been conducted since 1963. Incidence rates and numbers of stroke episodes, proportions for loss of consciousness and motor paralysis at onset, proportions for each seriousness category (A: death within one day after onset, B: death during 2-7 days after onset, C: survival more than 8 days after onset with complete hemiparesis, D: survival more than 8 days after onset with incomplete or no hemiparesis), and one-year survival rates and activity of daily living were investigated for 1964-69, 1970-79, 1980-89 and 1990-98. RESULTS: Stroke incidence declined 66% and 64% among the 30-69 years age group and 70 years over age group, respectively between 1964-69 and 1990-98. Incident numbers of stroke episodes declined 41% among those aged 30-69 years and, while it increased 100% in the 70 years over age group, this was much less than the increase rate of 271% rated for the corresponding aged population growth over time. In the 30-69 years age group, the proportion of patients with no loss of consciousness at onset increased from 53-64% during the former three periods to 79% in 1990-98. The proportion of patients with no motor paralysis also increased progressively over the study periods and the proportions for A or B categories in the seriousness classification decreased between 1964-69 and 1990-98 while the proportion in the D category increased between 1980-89 and 1990-98. One-year survival rates increased from 71% and 36% in 1964 to 86% and 61% in 1990-98 among the 30-69 years age group and 70 years over age group, respectively. With both, the numbers of totally dependent patients at one-year after onset, did not change significantly over time, despite the marked increase in the population of risk. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that a long-term community-based stroke prevention program can not only decrease stroke incidence and number of episodes, but also reduce the likelihood of severe stroke attack and improve prognosis, thereby suppressing the increase of totally dependent patients expected from growth of the old population in the community.
