Age Differences in Clinical Characteristics, Health care, and Outcomes after Ischemic Stroke in China

Background and purpose Little information is available on the effects of age on health care and outcomes of ischemic stroke (IS) in China. Our aim was to evaluated risk factors, health care, and outcomes among age groups including =45, 4665, 6679, and =80 similar to years and to find whether the outcome was affected by age and health care. Methods CNSR is a nationwide prospective registry for patients admitted with acute stroke and prospectively followed up 12-month outcomes. Demographics, socioeconomics, risk factors, health care, and outcomes were analyzed among age groups, and multivariate regression analysis was used to determine the association of outcome and age and health care. Results We identified 12,415 acute IS patients for analysis. Of 1179 (9.50%) were aged =80 similar to years. In terms of risk factors, cardiac diseases were significantly more frequent in patients =80 similar to years, behavioral risk factors were more common in younger patients, and hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes were more seen in 4679 patients. The use of health care varied among groups and was significantly lower in =80 similar to years especially in secondary prevention. The very old patients had the worst outcomes even after adjusting by prognostic factors; however, adjusting forward by health care, the extent of differences decreased. Conclusions In CNSR, differences in stroke clinic characteristics and health care were observed among various age groups, and the old patients, receiving lower levels of stroke care, had the worst outcomes. Knowledge of the age differences in ischemic stroke may be helpful to appropriately allocate the limited health resources and to improve stroke outcomes.