Predicting Stroke

In this project we have worked on the questions that will improve our knowledge and understanding of the natural history of stroke in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. We posed questions to subjects from the population of interest to reflect our results across the greater Kelantan population to develop a model of risk factors for stroke, models of case-fatalities and survival to compare the characteristics and outcomes of two main types of stroke, i.e. ischaemic stroke and haemorrhagic stroke, and lastly to assess the longitudinal change in functional health status using the Barthel Index post-stroke.

The project has produced four draft papers, in which several modelling data collection and data analysis strategies were applied to four data-sets: one was provided by the hospitals, two were extracted by us and the final one was based on personal interviews with stroke survivors. The new knowledge stemming from the stroke modelling and outcome assessment developed and analysed in this thesis could help improve our understanding of stroke in Kelantan. In conclusion, our data and the four draft papers written based on this PhD project have added new stroke data and knowledge on the progression of stroke, which is understated in the Malaysian and Asian population in general and in Kelantan specifically.