Background: Stroke causes a greater range of disabilities than any other condition. Where stroke mortalities are declining or stabilizing in developed countries, experts are concerned of the emerging epidemic of stroke in India.  Various risk factors and determinants of stroke are on rise and so is the risk of stroke. Reliable morbidity and mortality estimates for stroke in India are limited due to incomplete death certification, incorrect death classification, and uncertainty of etiology in cases of sudden death of multiple co–morbidities.

Methodology: The study was conducted at the premier hospital of Jammu & Kashmir, an 800 bedded referral hospital, Sher–i–Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar. Study group included all the established cases of stroke diagnosed on the basis of WHO definition of stroke, clinical history and detailed examination fulfilling the inclusion criteria. The diagnosis of stroke was confirmed by neuro–imaging techniques. Cranial Computerized tomography (CT) Scan was done in all cases and wherever CT scan was normal, Magnetic resonance (MRI) was used as confirmative tool for establishing the diagnosis of stroke. Information was sought from the stroke patients of a close family member using predesigned and pretested questionnaire which included question pertaining to the socio–demographic variables and the information about the various factors associated with stroke. Various factors that were studied included hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, cardiac diseases (like rheumatic heart disease, Atrial fibrillation, etc.), tobacco exposure, pshyco–social stress, alcohol abuse, use of oral anticoagulant drugs, use of oral contraceptives in case of females, family or past history of stroke, dietary habits and physical inactivity. The data was tabulated and analyzed by bivariate and multivariate analysis with the help of SPSS for WINDOWS (version 20).

Results: During one year of study, a total of 46613 patients were admitted in the hospital, among which 1438 were diagnosed to have a stroke. Thus almost 3 out of 100 hospital admissions were due to stroke. The total incidence (per 100 admissions) was observed to be around 30.85.

Conclusion: 3.08% of all admissions in SKIMS hospital during one year were due to stroke. There is predominance of hemorrhagic strokes over ischemic strokes as 75% of the stroke cases are hemorrhagic. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, tobacco abuse, hyperlipidemia and overweight/ obesity were the most prevalent modifiable risk factors among these stroke patients.