Table 1 Distribution of baseline characteristics among 79 689 patients treated at stroke units and 25 354 patients treated at other types of wards

	Stroke unit		Other types of wards		Test	Data missing
	n	%	n	%	p Value	n (%)
Male sex	40 668	51.0	12 043	47.5	<0.001	0 (0)
Haemorrhagic stroke	9265	11.6	3232	12.7	<0.001	0 (0)
Lowered level of consciousness	13 224	16.8	5881	23.7	<0.001	1324 (1.3)
Activities of daily living dependency*	9684	12.3	4020	16.5	<0.001	1810 (1.7)
Institutional living	6210	7.8	3048	12.2	<0.001	886 (0.8)
Previous stroke	16 764	21.0	5572	22.0	0.001	2304 (2.2)
Atrial fibrillation	19 889	25.0	6646	26.2	<0.001	2958 (2.8)
Diabetes	16 000	20.1	4965	19.6	0.087	1596 (1.5)
Treatment for hypertension	39 198	49.1	11 516	45.4	<0.001	2930 (2.8)

	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	p Value	n (%)
Age	75.1	11.2	77.0	5.2	<0.001	0 (0)
No of previous hospitalisations	4.7	5.3	5.2	5.7	<0.001	403 (0.4)

*Activities of daily living dependency, according to the definition of the present paper, was equivalent to a modified Rankin Scale score of 4–5 in a cohort of 545 patients,21 who were investigated 3 months after hospitalisation (personal communication, Marie Eriksson, 2008).