Table 1.

Incidence of stroke in the Middle East.

Country and study		Case ascertainment	Study period	Sample population number/ number of events	Age range (years)	Diagnostic criteria/ CT or MRI	Event type	Incidence rate in males per 100,000 person-years (95% CI)	Incidence rate in females per 100,000 person-years (95% CI)	Total population incidence rate per 100,000 person-years (95% CI)
Bahrain
	Al-jishi and Mohan10	Hospital admission	1995	356,000/ 144	20 and above	WHO/96%	FES and RS	59 –	55 –	57 –
	Al banna et al.11	Hospital admission	2011	872,288/521	20 and above	ICD-10/88.2	FES and RS	–	–	110 –
Egypt
	Farghaly et al.12,a	Door-to-door Al-Kharga District	2005–2008	62,583/ 156	All	WHO/all	FES	270 in 2007	230 in 2007	250b
	Kandil et al.13	Door-to-door Upper Egypt	1992, 1993, 2003	20,900/ 127	All	Unclear/all	FES and RS	100	85	180c
	El-Tallawy et al.14	Door-to-Door Al-Quseir	2009–2012	19,848/ 130	20 and above	WHO/all	FES and RS	212	150	181 for FES and RS 170 for FES
	Khedr et al.15	Door-to-door Qena Governorate	2001–2013	8027/ 74	All	Unclear/all	FES and RS	–	–	137
Iran
	Ahangar et al.17	Hospital admission (the only center for stroke admission in the region) Babol, North Iran	2001–2003	550,000/ 250	All	WHO/all	FES and RS	–	–	22.7
	Ghandehari et al.18,d	Hospital admission (the only neurology center in the province) Khorasan	2001–2005	682,000/ 1392	All	PIC/all	FES	–	–	43.17
	Oveisgharan et al.19	Admission in eight hospitals in the region Isfahan	2000–2003	1,700,000/ 4,361	All	WHO/90%	FES and RS	–	–	84.16e (78.46–89.86) 94.84f (88.94–100.74) 100.18g (94.40–105.96) 103.23h (97.41–109.05)
	Dehghani Firoozabadi et al.20	Hospital admission (the only neurology unit in the entire city) Birjand	2002–2008	Unclear/ 1219	All	WHO/all	FES and RS	–	–	48.6g 70.2h 78i 80.9j 98.4k 103.4b
	Fahimfar et al.21	Population-based study Tehran	2000–2009	2378/69	65 and above	WHO/all	FES and RS	450 (330–600)	250 (170–360)	–
	Azarpazhooh et al.22	Hospital admission and discharge, specialists and hospital outpatient clinics, death certificates, television and newspapers, and community health volunteers Mashhad	2006–2007	450,229/ 624	All	WHO/all	FES	144 (128–159)	133 (118–148)	139 (128–149)
	Hadaegh et al.23	Population-based study Tehran	2000–2009	2548/ 72	50 and above	Unclear/unclear	FES and RS	–	–	275 (214–355)
	Delbari et al.24,a	Hospital-based study Qom	2001–2002	136,094/ 460	45 and above	WHO/all	FES and RS	321 (317–324)	380 (376–384)	354 (346–353)
	Ghandehari and Moud29,l	Hospital-based study (the only neurology center in the province) Khorasan	2000–2005	314,000/ 124	15–45	Clinical definition/all	FES	–	–	8
	Jongorbani30	Neurology department of Kerman university	1992–1994	Unclear/ 359	Unclear	Unclear/unclear	FES and RS	44.4	59.0	–
Israel
	Plakht et al.37,a,d	Hospital admission	1988, 1996, 2006	Unclear/ 1287	All	Unclear/unclear	FES and RS	300m (257–343) 177n (153–202) 167k (148–186)	168m (137–199) 153n (131–174) 162k (143–180)	231m (204–257) 164n (148–181) 164k (151–177)
Kuwait
	Abdul-ghaffar et al.42,a	Hospital admission, primary care registries, and death certificates	1989, 1992, 1993	300,000/ 241	All	WHO/all	FES	142.62	138.94	145.6
Palestine
	Sweileh et al.44,a	Hospital-based study	2006–2007	Unclear/ 186	All	Unclear/all	FES and RS	–	–	89.8 (FES and RS)
Qatar
	Hamad et al.47	Hospital admission	1997	522,033/ 217	All	WHO/all	FES	46 (87.6–159.6)	33 (22.5–48.7)	41 (30.2–52.4)
	Nogueira51,o	Hospital admission	1983–1988	Unclear/44	All	Unclear/all	FES	–	–	2.69
Saudi Arabia
	Al rajeh et al.54	Hospital admission National guard community	1982–1992	Unclear/ 500	All	Unclear/all	FES	–	–	43.8
	Al-rajeh et al.61	Register center Eastern province	1989–90 1991–93	545,000/ 488	All	WHO/87%	FES	–		29.8 (25.2–34.3)
	Ayoola et al.67	Hospital admission	1997–1998	700,000/241	18 and above	Unclear/all	FES and RS	–	–	15.9

CT: computerized tomography; ICD-10: International Classification of Diseases 10; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; 95% CI: 95% confidence intervals stated when available; PIC: practical Iranian criteria classification for etiologic and topographic diagnosis of brain infarction; WHO: World Health Organization.

Clinical definition: stroke was defined as an ischemic focal neurological deficit that persisted at least for 24 h.

^aData reported on age-adjusted incidence rate.

^bData reported in 2007.

^cData reported in 1992.

^dStudy included ischemic stroke patients only.

^eData reported in 2000.

^fData reported in 2001.

^gData reported in 2002.

^hData reported in 2003.

ⁱData reported in 2004.

^jData reported in 2005.

^kData reported in 2006.

^lStudy included young ischemic stroke patients only.

^mData reported in 1988.

ⁿData reported in 1996.

^oStudy included subarachnoid hemorrhagic patients only.