ElderWeb

The American Stroke Association reported at their annual meeting that the use of nurse practitioners in stroke care seems to have extremely good results. By assigning the nurse practitioner to take responsibility for the care of the patient throughout their hospital stay, post-stroke complications were better managed, resulting in fewer deaths and less complications.

Also reported at this meeting was a study that showed that stroke incidence, after declining in the 1960's and 1970's, is on the rise. They estimate that about 1.5 million people will suffer from strokes or "mini-strokes" (TIAs) this year. Researchers speculated that one reason for the increase is that people are surviving other diseases that would have killed them in the past, including heart attacks and diabetes, both of which put them at risk for stroke. Stroke risk also increases with age, and people are living longer than they used to.