Epidemiologic Evaluation of Stroke Risk Factors among Rural-Urban Patients in Isfahan University Hospitals, Iran

Stroke is one of the commonest neurological diseases. However, no study has been designed to compare urban and rural stroke risk factors in Iran. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate epidemiologic characteristics of stroke risk factors among rural and urban population. In this prospective cross-sectional study, 590 consecutive patients were evaluated in departments of neurology at two university hospitals (associated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran). Patients above 16 years of age with confirmed stroke by a neurologist were included. Stroke risk factors such as hypertension (HTN), diabetes, dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, valvular diseases, smoking and addiction, ischemic heart disease (IHD), history of previous stroke and seasons of the year were registered. The patients were also asked if they lived in the rural or urban areas. Urban and rural patients respectively constituted 78.6% (n = 464) and 21.4% (n = 126) of the 590 participants. According to the performed analyses, HTN, IHD and diabetes were the commonest risk factors in both urban and rural patients. In addition, no significant differences were found in stroke risk factors between rural-urban patients. Similar to previous researches, this study indicated urban population to have a higher probability of having HTN, IHD and diabetes. However, no significant differences were observed in such complications between rural-urban patients.