National

• Every year about 795,000 people in the U.S. experience a new or recurrent stroke, suggesting that every 40 seconds someone suffers from a stroke (AHA, 2011).
  
  
  • Of these 610,000 are first attacks and 185,000 are recurrent attacks (AHA, 2011).
    
    
• In 2010, stroke was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States (www.cdc.gov/nchs/ fastats/deaths.htm).
  
  
• In 2004, 150,074 people (58,800 males and 91,274 females) died due to stroke in the United States with stroke deaths accounting for one of 16 deaths nationally (Vital Statistic of U.S., NCHS 2004).
  
  
• In 2002, there were 445,452 stroke-related hospitalizations among Medicare enrollees in the U.S. (MMWR, 2003).

New Jersey

• According to the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2.6% (5,839,000) Americans and 2.1% (146,000) New Jerseyans age 18 or older had a history of stroke (MMWR, 2007).
  
  
• According to the 2002-2005 New Jersey Uniform Billing (UB) data, there were over 14,000 hospitalizations attributable to primary acute stroke.
  
  
• In 2005, there were 14,381 stroke patients of whom 1,628 died while in hospital.
  
  
• Over 72% (72.3%) of the stroke hospitalizations in 2005 were 65 years old or older.
  
  
• About 65% (64.6%) of the stroke hospitalizations were Medicare enrollees.