Stroke Outcome
Hospital records and death certificates were used to identify
stroke cases; a total of 483 cases were identified. At each follow-up
survey, participants were asked to report all hospital stays since the
previous interview. Hospitals named during an interview were contacted,
with permission from the subject, and discharge summaries
were obtained for all hospital stays occurring during the period,
including stays not mentioned during the interview. A discharge
diagnosis of stroke (ICD-9 codes 431 to 434.9, 436, and 437.0 to
437.1) identified a case (31, 32). Up to 10 diagnoses could be listed
on a single record. The hospital admission date was used as the date
of stroke occurrence. For persons with more than one record listing
a stroke, the earliest admission date was used. All death certificates
were also searched for any mention of these ICD-9 codes (ie, underlying
cause or up to 20 ancillary conditions). For cases identified by
both a hospital record and death certificate, the date of stroke occurrence
was taken from the hospital record. Seventy-six cases were
identified only from death certificates.