The Barbados Register of Strokes

Collaborators:

This study was a collaboration of CDRC with the Division of Health and Social Care Research, King‘s College, London and the Ministry of Health, Barbados.

Funding:

Financial support for BROS was from the Wellcome Trust of Great Britain through a grant of US $237,403.

The Barbados Register of Strokes (BROS) began in 2001 and continued until 2005. The BROS findings, including estimates of the incidence, fatality rates, and risk factors of all subtypes of first-ever stroke in Barbados, and comparisons with similar estimates among stroke patients on the South London Stroke Register, have been published in major international stroke journals (see references below for those published since the last quinquennial).

Previous studies from the UK and US have shown that blacks have significantly higher rates of all subtypes of stroke compared to whites; however, BROS has shown that the incidence of stroke among blacks living in Barbados was lower than among blacks of Caribbean origin living in South London, who were, on average younger, with higher rates of diabetes and smoking, and more likely to have had a previous history of myocardial infarction.

The success of BROS gave impetus to the establishment of the BNR, the first-ever multi-chronic disease registry in the Caribbean.