Introduction

Stroke incidence data with methodologically acceptable design in Southeast Asia countries is limited. This study aimed to determine incidence of age-, sex- and subtype-specific first-ever stroke (FES) in Vietnam.

Methods

We conducted a hospital-based retrospective study, targeting all stroke cases hospitalized at a solo-provider hospital in our study site of Nha Trang from January 2009 to December 2011 with International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes I60-69. We calculated positive predictive values (PPVs) of each ICD-10-coded stroke by conducting a detailed case review of 190 randomly selected admissions with ICD-10 codes of I60-I69. These PPVs were then used to estimate annual incident stroke cases from the computerized database. National census data in 2009 was used as a denominator.

Results

2,693 eligible admissions were recorded during the study period. The crude annual incidence rate of total FES was 90.2 per 100,000 population (95% CI 81.1–100.2). The age-adjusted incidence of FES was 115.7 (95% CI 95.9–139.1) when adjusted to the WHO world populations. Importantly, age-adjusted intracerebral hemorrhage was as much as one third of total FES: 36.9 (95% CI 26.1–51.0).

Conclusions

We found a considerable proportion of FES in Vietnam to be attributable to intracerebral hemorrhage, which is as high or exceeding levels seen in high-income countries. A high prevalence of improperly treated hypertension in Vietnam may underlie the high prevalence of intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke in this population.