Statistical Comparison of Stroke Patients Visiting an Emergency Department During Summer Versus Winter: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objectives: In the present study, we aimed to compare the number of brain stroke cases presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) of a major referral hospital in Tehran during summer and winter. Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective hospital-based study was carried out in 2016 - 2017 in Tehran, Iran. The study population consisted of all patients admitted with a diagnosis of brain stroke. The data of all patients were extracted from their medical profiles and analyzed via SPSS V.16 software using descriptive statistics (mean and percentage). Results: In this study, we enrolled 179 patients with a mean age of 68.0 ± 14.5 years (62.0% males). The rate of brain stroke was 63% in summer, and 37% in winter (62% vs. 38%; P = 0.014), and this difference did not correlate with sex or age of the patients (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Comparing the prevalence of brain stroke in summer and winter in this study showed that the frequency of brain stroke was significantly higher in the three months of summer (warm season) than winter (cold season).