Lambeck (2022) IATF expert opinion Enhancing the quality of aquatic therapy for subacute and chronic stroke patients

Introduction
Stroke is the leading cause of death and disability globally with 116m years of healthy life lost each year to the disease1. Almost 2/3rd of stroke survivors receives rehabilitation, but will experience long lasting problems with independence due to locomotor problems. Due to the ageing of e.g., the European population and the strong association between stroke risk and age, the numbers of people having a stroke continue to rise. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease study 2015, and demographic projections obtained from Eurostat, statistical office of the European Union (EU), a 34% increase in total
number of stroke events in the EU between 2015 and 2035 is predicted.