Table 2.

Patient Population Characteristics Across Survey Years for WHO Stroke Cases Aged 30–74 Years in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Metropolitan Area

Characteristic	1980 (n = 567)	1985 (n = 602)	1990 (n = 695)	1995 (n = 660)	2000 (n = 1,249)	P-trend
Sex, % female	44	46	47	45	47	NS
Mean age, years	64	64	64	63	62	0.0002
Race, %
White	87	92	91	82	69	<0.0001
Black	5	3	5	9	7
Asian	0	1	1	3	5
Hispanic	1	0	0	0	1
Native American/other	1	1	1	1	1
Missing	5	3	1	5	17
Preadmission history, %
History of stroke	21	25	27	28	25	0.02
History of transient ischemic attack	10	15	10	18	10	NS
History of myocardial infarction		20	19	16	16	0.006
History of atrial fibrillation	14	15	19	17	14	NS
History of hypertension	53	58	63	67	68	<0.0001
History of diabetes mellitus			31	32	28	NS
Clinical variables, %
Level of consciousness
Unconscious	16	14	17	13	10	0.0007
Conscious	79	85	81	86	90
Missing	5	1	2	1	0
Neurologic deficit
Major	78	81	77	73	72	<0.0001
Two minor	7	8	11	10	7
Other	15	11	12	17	21
Aphasiaa
Yes	33	31	29	26	29	0.03
No	42	56	57	57	59
Missing	25	13	14	17	12
Visual field cuta
Yes	16	25	21	17	17	NS
No	41	50	44	46	64
Missing	43	25	35	37	19
Median length of hospital stay, days	12	8	7	5	5	<0.0001
Neuroimaging present (includes MRI and CT), %	75	88	96	98	98	<0.0001
MRI present, %			18	30	60	<0.0001
Diffusion weighted imaging present, %					35

Abbreviations: CT, computed tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; NS, not significant; WHO, World Health Organization.

^aExcludes cases who were unconscious at the first examination (n = 498).