Introduction & Objective: Stroke is the third cause of death in developed countries and the most common neurologic disease resulting in disability. Nowadays, several risk factors for stroke are recognized properly. Life style and risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes are different among various cultures and countries. This study was designed to evaluate strokes epidemiology and their cardinal risk factors in patients who referred to Farshchian hospital of Hamedan during 2014-2015.

Material & Methods: In this cross sectional-descriptive study 684 files of patients hospitalized in neurology ward of Farshchian hospital has been evaluated whose diagnosis was confirmed by clinical signs and CT scan study during 2014-15. Their information was derived to complete the check list including age, sex, location and cardinal risk factors such as history of past stroke, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, dyslipidemia and history of cardiac diseases. Corresponding data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software.

Result: Of 684 patients, 355 individuals (51.9%) were males and 329 individuals (48.1%) were females, of whom 547 cases (79.97%) had ischemic stroke and 137 cases (20.03 %) had hemorrhagic stroke. The mean age for women, (67.83 years,) were meaningfully more than that of men (64.18 years), (P=0.0002), and the group age of 60 to 69 years with 29.68 percent had the most abundant cases of strokes overall. 396 individuals (57.89%) were urban and 288 individuals (42.11%) were rural. 245 individuals (35.82%) had previous stroke and 294 individuals (42.98%) had familial history of stroke. The most frequent risk factors were hypertension with 54.24 percent, cardiac diseases with 35.38 percent, smoking with 29.68 percent, diabetes type 2 with 19.01 percent and dyslipidemia with 18.42 percent in order of abundance. The relation between cardiac disease and urbanity was meaningful (P=0.02), and in hemorrhagic stroke, prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher than ischemic stroke (P=0.009). Hypertension (P=0.006), familial history of stroke (P=0.00001) and cardiac diseases (P=0.01) in patients with recurrent attack were meaningfully more often.

Conclusion: This study indicated that women suffer from stroke at older ages than men and abundance of stroke in men is a decade prior than women. Amidst common risk factors, cardiac disease in urban population is higher and prevalence of hypertension in hemorrhagic stroke is higher than ischemic cases. Hypertension, familial history of stroke and cardiac diseases in patients with recurrent attack are more frequent as well.