Research Assistant Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Yardley, Pennsylvania, United States
Introduction: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Numerous medical inventions such as tissue plasminogen activator, mechanical thrombectomy, and flow diverters have led to drastic improvements in stroke care. This study aimed to investigate temporal trends in cerebrovascular disease mortality in the United States and Canada.
Methods: World Health Organization (WHO) Mortality Database was queried for cerebrovascular disease in the United States and Canada from 1950 to 2020.
Results: There were 12.7M deaths due to cerebrovascular disease across the study period. The United States of America had a death count 11.3 times greater than Canada (11.7M vs. 1.0M). In the last decade, the USA had 10.1 times more deaths than Canada (1.50M vs. 150k). Comparison of USA vs. Canada in 2020 demonstrated the USA has a 9% greater percentage of cause-specific deaths out of total deaths than Canada (5.25 vs. 4.81). Analysis of USA vs. Canada demonstrated that the USA has 45% more age-standardized deaths per 100,000 (21.1 vs. 14.6) and 25% greater deaths per 100,000 (45.6 vs. 36.5) than Canada. Analysis from 1950 to 2019 revealed that Canada saw a greater decrease in death rate per 100,000 people [91.1 to 36.5 (-59.9%)] than the United States [104.0 vs. 45.6 (-56.2%)]. Across nearly all metrics, the United States mortality regarding cerebrovascular mortality fared poorly relatively to Canada.
Conclusion : Substantial progress has been made to decrease cerebrovascular mortality rates in the USA and Canada. However, there is a heavy disease burden of cerebrovascular incidents. Future research is necessary into exact stroke etiology to further improve public health.
