Disability Due to Stroke

There is estimated to be over 3.5 million survivors of stroke in the United States, where stroke is the leading cause of serious long-term disability and accounts for half of all patients hospitalized for acute neurological disease.  In 1991-92, 1 million Americans age 15 and older had disabilities resulting from stroke.

According to data from the Framingham Heart Study (a long-term population-based study 5,184 men and women, aged 30 to 62 at entry in 1948, who were free of cardiovascular disease) cited by the AHA, 31% of stroke survivors in the study needed help caring for themselves; 20% needed help when walking ; and 71% had an impaired vocational capacity when examined an average of 7 years later.