Gender Differences in Ischemic Stroke DALY

The detailed methods for the assessment of disease DALYs have been described previously^{9 (link),10 (link)}. Differences in DALYs number (men minus women) and ASDR (men to women’s ASDR ratio) were used to compare the relative levels of IS DALYS between sexes. We used percentage changes and estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) to assess the trends in DALYs number and ASDR. It is assumed that the natural logarithm of ASDR follows a regression line. Thus, Y = α + βX + ε, where Y denotes ln (ASDR), X means a calendar year, and ε refers to the error term. Herein, β determines the positive or negative trends of ASDR. Then, EAPC = 100*(exp(β)− 1). Its 95% confidence intervals are also obtained from the linear model. When the EAPC value and its upper boundary of the confidence interval are positive, the trend in ASDR is increasing. Instead, when the EAPC value and its lower boundary of the confidence interval are negative, the trend in ASDR is decreasing. Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were conducted to identify the correlations between ASDR ratio and SDI. R software version 3.5.2 (https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Citing-R) and SPSS software version 21.0 (https://www.ibm.com/products/spss-statistics) were used for charting and analysis. A two-tailed P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.