ÑANDU: community-based prospective study investigating after a stroke

What is it about?

This study adds prospective, unbiased, population-based information for stroke incidence, prognosis, and effects on health-related quality of life at 6 months and 12 months in an underserved mixed rural-urban population in Chile with a high vascular risk. Our previous similar study in Chile was from a smaller, wealthier, urban coastal population, which had a lower overall vascular risk. This study also adds more information on long-term prognosis as it extends follow-up from 6 months to 12 months. Data for health-related quality of life after stroke at a population level have only been collected in a few similar studies, mostly in high-income populations in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and the USA. This information is valuable for the unbiased estimation of the global burden of stroke in Chile and globally.

Featured Image

Photo by Guillaume Bourdages on Unsplash

Photo by Guillaume Bourdages on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Even though Chile has made substantial progress in stroke prevention and care legislation, our data suggest that more should be done or that this legislation needs more time to show effects in communities like the Ñuble population. Our data also specifically point to the absence of specific legislation in the identification and treatment of atrial fibrillation to prevent embolic strokes as denoted by the low use of oral anticoagulation.