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Weekly variation in the onset of ischemic Stroke
Date Issued |
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2006-09-02 |
abstract no. P1051.
Posters session 1. Cerebrovascular diseases
Aim: To examine the occurrence of ischemic stroke (IS) by day of the week in Klaipeda, in western Lithuania. Methods: 2145 consecutive patients (54.4% women; age 69.7 (SD 0.4 years) were analyzed in a hospital-based population from 1995 to 2002. The time of onset of IS symptoms was registered. The weekly distribution of IS events was tested for homogeneity by chisquare goodness-of-fit tests stratifying by sex and age. Cumulated weekday averages were expressed as the percentage above or below the average weekly value during the entire study period. Results: The weekly distribution of disease onset in patients with IS demonstrated a significant variation (p<0.001), with a peak (above weekly average) on Monday (15%). Saturday was the only day on which the observed number of IS was consistently lower (17.5%) than the expected number. The analysis by age group demonstrated a significant weekly variation only in men aged 60 to 74 (p=0.048) with the peaks on Monday (15.2%) and on Thursday (17.7%); in women aged 60 to 74, on Monday (35.6%, p=0.003); and in women aged >75, on Tuesday (30.4%, p=0.014). In both, men and women aged 25 to 59, the peaks of IS were observed on midweek days (Tuesday and Thursday), but this was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The data suggest that the highest risk of ischemic stroke onset is on Mondays and the lowest on Saturdays.