To date, there is little information on the incidence of stroke in Thailand. It is currently being studied in a large cohort called the Thai Epidemiological Stroke (TES) Study. This study has collected data from over 20,000 subjects from the 5 major geographical regions of the country.5
Among the world population, age-adjusted stroke incidence rates in high-income countries have decreased from 163 per 100,000 person-years from 1970-1979 to only 94 per 100,000 person-years from 2000-2008. In contrast, the incidence of stroke has nearly doubled in low- to middle-income countries. (52 per 100,000 person-years to 117 per 100,000 person-years, respectively).8 As a middle income country, it is believed that the stroke incidence in Thailand will follow this rising trend. The incidence of stroke is projected to increase as the Thai population ages and although further study is needed to support this projected trend, it is still approximated that at least one new stroke case occurs in Thailand every 2 minutes.