epidemiology of stroke 2 years before and during covid-19 pandemic in kerman (south of iran): a hospital-based study

Introduction: stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide. recent studies have shown that the covid-19 pandemic has been associated with a higher frequency of stroke. this study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic aspects of stroke two years before and during the covid-19 pandemic in kerman. method: this cross-sectional study was conducted in kerman. the participants included all patients with a confirmed diagnosis of stroke. covid-19 confirmation was based on a positive pcr test. the data was analyzed with spss.v24 software.results: in this study, 4152 patients with stroke were evaluated. the frequency of stroke before and during the covid-19 pandemic was the same. the total number of stroke patients with covid-19 was 298 (8.16%). the frequency of ischemic stroke patients before the covid-19 pandemic was 1751 and during the pandemic was 1770. before and after the pandemic, the mean age of ischemic stroke patients was 67.42 ±14.14 and 64.49 ±14.46 respectively, which showed a statistically significant difference (p>0.001). our findings showed a significant difference between the nihss of ischemic stroke before and after the pandemic (p lt;0.001). the mortality rate of stroke patients was 111 before covid-19 and 115 patients in the first two years of covid-19. except for the mortality rate (p<0.001), there was no significant difference in other demographic variables between ischemic stroke patients with and without covid-19. conclusion: the patients with ischemic stroke during the covid-19 pandemic were younger and had more neurological deficits than the ischemic stroke patients before the pandemic. covid-19 was associated with higher mortality in patients with ischemic stroke.