Bmc Neurol
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Multicenter Study
The social and economic burden of stroke survivors in Italy: a prospective, incidence-based, multi-centre cost of illness study.
The aim of this study was to estimate the one-year societal costs due to a stroke event in Italy and to investigate variables associated with costs in different phases following hospital admission. ⋯ The significant role of informal care in stroke management and different distribution of costs over time suggest that appropriate planning should look at both incident and prevalent stroke cases to forecast health infrastructure needs and more importantly, to assure that stroke patients have adequate "social" support.