Introduction: In 2017, 1.5 million people were diagnosed with stroke, 9 million were living with stroke and 0.4 million died because of stroke in 32 European countries. We estimate the economic burden of stroke across these countries in 2017. Patients and methods: In a population-based cost analysis, we evaluated the cost of stroke. We estimated overall health and social care costs from expenditure on care in the primary, outpatient, emergency, inpatient and nursing/ residential care settings, and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, we estimated the costs of unpaid care provided by relatives or friends of patients, lost earnings due to premature death and costs associated with individuals who temporarily or permanently left employment because of illness. Results: In 2017 stroke cost the 32 European countries under analysis e60 billion, with health care accounting for e27 billion (45%), representing 1.7% of health expenditure. Adding the costs of social care (e5 billion), annual strokerelated care costs were equivalent to e59 per citizen, varying from e11 in Bulgaria to e140 in Finland. Productivity losses cost e12 billion, equally split between early death and lost working days. A total of e1.3 billion hours of informal care were provided to stroke survivors, costing Europe e16 billion. Conclusion: Our study provides a snapshot of the economic consequences posed by stroke to 32 European countries in 2017. It also strengthens and updates the evidence we have gathered over the last 15 years, indicating that the costs of stroke are rising, partly due to an ageing population.

How does the public want a COVID-19 vaccine to be allocated? We conducted a conjoint experiment asking 15,536 adults in 13 countries to evaluate 248,576 profiles of potential vaccine recipients who varied randomly on five attributes. Our sample includes diverse countries from all continents. The results suggest that in addition to giving priority to health workers and to those at high risk, the public favors giving priority to a broad range of key workers and to those with lower income. These preferences are similar across respondents of different education levels, incomes, and political ideologies, as well as across most surveyed countries. The public favored COVID-19 vaccines being allocated solely via government programs but were highly polarized in some developed countries on whether taking a vaccine should be mandatory. There is a consensus among the public on many aspects of COVID-19 vaccination, which needs to be taken into account when developing and communicating rollout strategies.

No abstract