Stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain either suddenly becomes blocked (ischaemic stroke) or ruptures and begins to bleed (haemorrhagic stroke). Either may result in part of the brain dying, leading to sudden impairment that can affect a number of functions. Stroke often causes paralysis of parts of the body normally controlled by the area of the brain affected by the stroke, or speech problems and other symptoms, such as difficulties with swallowing, vision and thinking.
Stroke is often preventable because many of its risk factors are modifiable. These include biomedical risk factors such as high blood pressure, insufficient physical activity, overweight and obesity, and tobacco smoking. Stroke contributes to premature death, disability, and preventable hospitalisations, consequently a National Strategic Action Plan for Heart Disease and Stroke is under development. The action plan aims to reflect priorities, and identify implementable actions to reduce the impact of stroke in the community.
In 2018, an estimated 387,000 people—214,000 males and 173,000 females—had had a stroke at some time in their lives, based on self-reported data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (ABS 2019). The estimated prevalence of stroke has declined slightly between 2003 and 2018 (1.7% and 1.3% respectively) (ABS 2019; AIHW 2013).
In 2017, there were around 38,000 stroke events—more than 100 every day. The rate of these events, based on hospital and mortality data, fell 24% between 2001 and 2017, from an age-standardised rate of 169 to 129 per 100,000 population. The rate of decline was greater among those aged 75 and over, when compared to those aged 55–74 (Figure 1).