An Indian dies of stroke every four minutes: Neurologist

New Delhi: Stroke is the second commonest cause of death in India with the country recording one stroke death every four minutes, neurologist M V Padma Srivastava said.

Speaking at an event, Srivastava stated India bore the maximum burden of stroke with 68.6 per cent incidence of stroke, 70.9 per cent stroke deaths and 77.7 per cent disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. She was speaking at an oration organised at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to celebrate International Women's Day.

Srivastava delivered the oration on "stroke care and its primary preventive methods in poor resource settings in India". "Stroke is the second commonest cause of death in India. About 1,85,000 strokes occur every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke death every 4 minutes.

"According to Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), India bore the most of the burden of stroke with 68.6 per cent incidence of stroke, 70.9 per cent stroke deaths and 77.7 per cent disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost," Srivastava said. These figures are alarming for India, she noted. "Another alarming and important finding of the GBD 2010 stroke project is 5.2 million (31%) strokes were in children aged less than 20 years. The stroke burden is greater in India and more so among younger and middle-aged people," Srivastava said.

In spite of these alarming figures, Srivastava pointed out many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure and organisation required to treat stroke patients quickly and efficiently and do not deliver adequate stroke care. The event also included inspirational talks by three distinguished faculty members of the hospital. Dr Jayashree Sood, Chairperson, Institute of Anesthesiology, spoke on how to maintain the balance between work and life, especially for women, Prof Kusum Verma, Advisor Cytopathology, shared her experiences mitigating professional challenges, and Dr Neelam Kler, Chairperson of Department of Neonatology, talked about her belief in the saying "never say never". This programme was hosted by the department of research.

Another report says more than 10 million older adults aged 60 or over in India may have dementia, comparable to the prevalence rates for countries such as the US and the UK, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

Dementia leads to impairment of mental processes, such as memory, thinking, reasoning and judgement, and thus seriously impairs an individual's ability to perform daily functions.

According to a study published in the journal Nature Public Health Emergency Collection, by 2050 people over 60 years of age are predicted to constitute 19.1 per cent of the total population in India. This ageing of the population is expected to be accompanied by a dramatic increase in the prevalence of dementia, a syndrome not taken very seriously in the country.

The latest research, published in the journal Neuroepidemiology, used an artificial intelligence (AI) technique known as semi-supervised machine learning to analyse data from 31,477 older adults.

The international team of researchers found that the prevalence rate of dementia in adults aged 60 or over in India could be 8.44 per cent -- equating to 10.08 million older adults in the country.

This compares to prevalence rates recorded in similar age groups of 8.8 per cent in the US, 9 per cent in the UK and between 8.5 and 9 per cent in Germany and France, they said.