Death, dependency and health status 90 days following hospital admission for acute stroke in NSW

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Stroke is an Australian health priority area causing considerable levels of disability. We report 90-day outcomes for a cohort of acute stroke patients in New South Wales (NSW), Australia prior to randomization to a large cluster randomized controlled trial (CRCT), the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) trial. AIMS: This paper describes prospectively collected, 90-day outcome data for a cohort of NSW stroke patients, providing pre-intervention data for the QASC trial. METHODS: A consecutive sample of patients from acute stroke units in NSW was recruited. We measured patient death, disability (modified Rankin Score (mRS)), dependency (Barthel Index (BI)) and Health Status (Medica..