Treatment Outcomes and Associated Factors among Hospitalized Stroke Patients at Shashemene Referral Hospital, Ethiopia.

Background: The 2013 Global Burden of Disease report indicated that 80% of stroke deaths occur in low- and middle-income regions. Although stroke has been consistently reported as one of the three leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the past years in Ethiopia, there is a paucity of data regarding treatment outcomes of stroke if sufficient. Hence, the present study aimed to assess patterns of treatment outcomes and associated factors among hospitalized stroke patients at Shashemene Referral Hospital.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the medical ward of Shashemene Referral Hospital. A total of 73 hospitalized stroke patients during the period 2012-2017 were included in the study. Demographic characteristics, risk factors, and stroke types and their hospital outcomes were reviewed from the medical records of the patients. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics such as percent and frequency were used to summarize patients' characteristics. Binary logistic regression was used to investigate the potential predictors of treatment outcome. A p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Result: Ischemic stroke was the most common type of stroke (65.8%) diagnosed in our setting. Hypertension (52.05%) was the common comorbid condition. More than half (54.79%) of the stroke patients improved on treatment. Dyslipidemics were prescribed to 68.49% of patients and the most popular antiplatelet was aspirin, which was prescribed to 61.64% of the study participants. Age, sex, type of stroke, and type of comorbidity were not significant factors of stroke treatment outcome.

Conclusion: Ischemic stroke was the most common type of stroke diagnosed among the study participants while aspirin and statins were the most frequently used drugs in the management of stroke. Approximately 50% of hospitalized stroke patients had good treatment outcome and none of the investigated variables were significantly associated with the treatment outcomes.