Abstract
In 19th Century England, both winter and summer death rates were high. Mortality data showed decline in summer peak with _Cultural Progress_ of a society and the bimodal pattern has been replaced in developed nations by a single winter peak in mortality. We explored the effect of age and gender on presence or absence of winter excess in different types of stroke.
Methodology: We analysed a stroke register of a UK district general hospital (serving a population of 568,000) over 4 seasonal years (autumn 1997- summer 2001). Winter excess was calculated by Curwen_s method* [winter = December- March: Winter excess = admissions in {winter _ _ (preceding 4 autumn months + following 4 summer months)}]. We analysed definite stroke cases with clinical and radiological evidence of either haemorrhagic or non-haemorrhagic strokes for <= 40, 41-65, 66-75, 76-85, >= 86 age groups for both genders.
Results: Age range = 18 -105 (median= 78), N= 2491. There was a winter excess of 16 out of 55 haemorrhagic male stroke patients aged 66-75 and a winter excess of 80 out of 597 non-haemorrhagic strokes female patients aged 76-85. Females over 85 also showed summer peak for non-haemorrhagic stroke (74 summer vs. 68 winter admissions).
Conclusions: Our observations suggest that age and gender are important factors in seasonal occurrence of stroke. Older elderly females seemed to be more affected by extreme weather (either hot or cold). There appeared to be higher incidence of non-haemorrhagic stroke in older females and higher haemorrhagic stroke in younger males. * Curwen M. Health Trends 1990/91.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 323 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 2004 |