Stroke affects many people in the United Kingdom and can lead to a variety of long-term consequences. A key aspect of a stroke survivor's physical healthcare is prevention of further strokes and statins are one of the medications used for this. Stroke can also affect a survivor's mental health with depression being a common manifestation of this. Both statin prescribing and the management of depression are usually the responsibility of the survivor's general practitioner (GP). This study intends to describe how many people are diagnosed with a first stroke each year since 2000. It also intends to describe how many of the people with a new stroke are prescribed statins and how many are diagnosed with depression. It will also explore potential factors that make a survivor more or less likely to be prescribed a statin or diagnosed with depression. This will help GPs and healthcare professionals better understand the impact of stroke and the associated healthcare needs.
Stroke has many long-term consequences which are managed within primary care. This study intends to describe healthcare for stroke survivors within primary care in the United Kingdom (UK) whose incident stroke occurred between 2000 and 2014. Trends in incidence of stroke, statin prescribing and incident depression after stroke will be described. This retrospective cohort study method will include patients registered with a General Practitioner (GP) within the Clinical Research Practice Datalink (CPRD) and having a first stroke recorded as occurring between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2014. The key outcomes of interest are incidence of stroke, statin prescribing and incident depression. Analyses will be descriptive for incidence of first stroke over time, and incidence of post- stroke depression. Statistical regression analyses will be performed to model effects of covariates on statin prescription and depression outcomes.
First-stroke - Post-stroke statins use - Post-stroke depression
Duncan Edwards - Chief Investigator - University of Cambridge
Zhirong Yang - Corresponding Applicant - University of Cambridge
James Brimicombe - Collaborator - University of Cambridge
Jonathan Mant - Collaborator - University of Cambridge
Lucy Gerza - Collaborator - University of Cambridge
Patient Level Index of Multiple Deprivation