The post-stroke hemiplegic patient. II. Incidence, mortality, and vocational return in Göteborg, Sweden with a review of the literature.

A review of recent literature on incidence, mortality and prevalence of stroke with special emphasis on hemiplegia is given. A combined retrospective/prospective study of first stroke with hemiplegia before age 66 shows identical age-specific incidence 1965/66 and five years later 1970/71. The mortality rates are also nearly identical during one year after stroke. Half-survival time is 6 years. 32% of all 6-year survivors and 41% of those who had only one stroke return to a vocation. Return to work is correlated to degree of motor handicap and probably also to age. In the Swedish population of 8 million, each year about 2,300 individuals, still in their vocationally active years, fall victim to first stroke with hemiplegia. Of these, more than 1,000 will survive more than 6 years, but only about 300--400 of these can under the present circumstances be actively re-employed. It is felt that more active vocational measures would be beneficial for both handicapped individuals and society.