Sex Differences in Outcomes Over the First Year After Ischemic Stroke

Female survivors had worse functional outcome but not other outcomes than male survivors up to 12 months after stroke. Although outcomes generally continued improving after 3 months poststroke for both sexes, the recovery pattern differed by sex. These results suggest that early and continued assessments of functional outcome after stroke may be needed, particularly for female survivors to reduce the sex differences, and that future interventions designed to improve outcomes in the chronic phase of stroke should consider the sex-specific recovery patterns. The generalizability may be limited by our single community study population, and results should be replicated in other populations.