One-hundred-and-thirty-one female stroke patients were identified in a retrospective analysis of female medical admissions to the Penang General Hospital during 1983. The hospital medical admission rate of women with stroke was significantly higher amongst the Chinese than the Malays [p < 0.001) or the Indians (p < 0.001). A higher proportion of Indians than Chinese or Malays presented within 24 hours of the onset of illness. The case fatality rate at discharge was 34% when patients taken home moribund were included as fatal cases. Such cases where patients were taken home at their own risk (AOR) were common among the Malays and the Chinese but did not occur amongst the Indians.
Study site: female medical wards, Penang General Hospital
Age-standardised death rates, for ages 35-64 years in both sexes, from ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and hypertensive disease for Chinese, Malays, and Indians in Singapore (1980-84) have been compared with those in England and Wales, USA and Japan (1982). For ischaemic heart disease Indians have the highest mortality, then Malays, with Chinese less than the Western countries but more than Japan. For cerebrovascular disease the Malays have highest mortality, then Indians, then Chinese, followed by Japan, England and Wales, and USA in that order. For hypertensive disease it is again Malays, then Indians, then Chinese, but followed by the different order of USA, England and Wales, and Japan. The differences are discussed in the light of declining trends in mortality from these disease in Singapore over the preceding 25 years. The special problems of ischaemic heart disease in Indians and hypertension and it's sequelae in Malays are highlighted.