Objectives: This study reported the prevalence and risk factors of pediatric hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke in Taiwan

Methods: We used the total data of Inpatient expenditures by admissions of 2011 of National Health Insurance to estimate the prevalence and incidence of stroke. In NHI database, patients aged less than 20 years old were enrolled. Cases of stroke were identified according to International Classification of Disease 9th edition (ICD-9) for outpatients. Statistic information on age, sex, disease status, and urbanization were used in this study. Risk factors were majorly according to the data of Registry for catastrophic illness patients and associated ICD-9 coding of the admission Claims of 2011.

Results: There were totally 5125,254 children enrolled and 394 children were diagnosed of stroke during the hospital admissions in 2011. The crude prevalence of stroke was 7.7/100,000.Hmorrhagic stroke were 44.4% and 37.6% for ischemic stroke. Boys had a higher prevalence than girls ha (8.1/100,000vs.6.7/100,000). Seizures and alter of consciousness were commonly commitment coding with pediatric strokes. 36 patients (9.1%) died during the admission and 130 patients (33.0%) received rehabilitation in 2011. Age<2 has significant higher prevalence of stroke than other subgroups (P<0.05).In addition, children lived in more rural areas were also at higher risk of stroke (OR=1.31, 95%CI=1.21-1.42).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that age younger than 2 years has significant higher risk factor of stroke. Other Risk factors included Living in rural area, vascular disease, Previous diagnosed of cerebral palsy, congenital heart diseases, CNS infection, trauma, Brain tumor and hematologic malignancy.