The data-collection procedures for the Stroke event registration data component of the WHO MONICA Project are described in the MONICA Manual, Part IV, Section 2.
The data were transferred from the MONICA Collaborating Centres (MCCs) to the MONICA Data Centre (MDC) using the Core data transfer format - stroke events (Form 03, Version 3). In the Basic analysis data set of the MONICA Archive, the stroke event registration data are given in a format, which is specified in the Data archive format - stroke events (Form 03, Version 4). The Data archive format includes the data items of the Core data transfer format, with the exception that the day of birth is blinded and only the month and year of birth are given. This is done in order to comply with the personal data confidentiality laws of some countries. Furthermore, all years are given in four characters (e.g. 1987 rather than 87), to avoid confusion after the year 2000.
A number of derived data items have been added:
The quality of the data, as well as MCC specific characteristics of the data or the data-collection procedures are described in the Quality assessment of stroke event registration data. In addition, data quality scores for the analysis of trends in the rates of stroke events during the 10-year period is derived in the document Stroke event trend quality score. It is important that anyone who intends to use the data is familiar with these quality assessment reports.
Descriptive statistics calculated from the data as well as commonly used definitions of derived data items can be found in the MONICA stroke event registration data book 1982-1995.
A 20% sample of the stroke event registration data, in the format specified in the Data archive format - stroke events (Form 03, Version 4), can be found in the file:
This sample analysis data set was extracted from the Basic Analysis Data Set of the MONICA Archive using systematic sampling. The file includes the stroke events of the MONICA Reporting Units and calendar years specified in Table 1 and Table 2.1 of the report "Quality assessment of stroke event registration data in the WHO MONICA Project". Tabulations of the distributions of data included in this file are given in document Distributions of the data on form 03 - stroke events.