Burden of cerebrovascular disease in the Oxford area in 1963 and 1964.

The only available information on the magnitude of the problem of cerebrovascular disease in England and Wales is to be found in the mortality data of the Registrar General and in the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry, which enumerates spells of illness but not the people suffering from those spells. There are no representative morbidity statistics. Data collected by the Oxford Record Linkage Study show that in 1963 from a population of 340,000 there were 427 hospital admissions among 391 patients. Of these, 34.5% were aged less than 65 years, and when patients who died at home without having entered hospital were added this figure fell to 26.7%.The survival rates at one month and one year for all strokes in the community were 43 and 30%, respectively. Married men were found to spend an average of 37 days in hospital, compared with 55 for married women; single women stayed in hospital an average of 10 days longer than single men. It is hoped that in addition to any value the overall findings may have in the planning of health services they will serve as a useful baseline in the evaluation of new methods of prophylaxis and treatment for cerebrovascular disease.