CVD Cases in Barbados, 2023
BNR briefing, 2023
31 Oct 2025
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Why this matters
Counts are the simplest and most transparent way to show what is happening in our hospital. Each number represents a person who suffered a heart attack or stroke, and together they show the pressure on our health system. Before we can interpret trends or calculate rates, we must first be confident in these raw numbers: how many people were affected, and when. Presenting counts provides the foundation for our remaining surveillance results.
What we did
We reviewed all hospital-registered strokes and heart attacks for 2023 and compared them with the previous five years. We examined who was affected: men and women under 70 and those 70 and older. We also tracked how cases built up week by week. By comparing 2023 counts with the five-year average, we could see when numbers rose above or fell below what would normally be expected.
The briefing focuses on three questions:
How many?
We counted hospital-registered stroke and heart attack events during 2023.
When?
We tracked how cases accumulated week by week through the year.
Who?
We summarised cases by event type, sex, and age group.
Headline findings
Women
312
Stroke cases
in 2023
Men
312
Stroke cases
in 2023
Women
105
Heart attack cases
in 2023
Men
141
Heart attack cases
in 2023
Weekly cases in 2023
Stroke and heart attack cases in 2023 compared with the five-year average
In 2023, the Barbados National Registry recorded 312 strokes in women and 312 in men, and 105 heart attacks in women compared with 141 in men. Strokes stayed consistently above the five-year average, ending the year about 60 cases higher than expected, while heart attacks remained below average for much of the year. The contrast may reflect how quickly each emergency is recognised and treated. Stroke patients often reach hospital sooner through family or bystander action, whereas people with heart attack symptoms may delay seeking care. These differences, along with lingering post-COVID changes in health-seeking behaviour, suggest that hospital activity as much as disease burden may have shifted, underscoring the value of simple counts as an early warning for changes in care and system readiness.
Cases by age and sex
Proportion of stroke and heart attack cases occurring before age 70
Premature cardiovascular disease
Across both sexes, a large share of cardiovascular events continue to occur before age 70, highlighting the ongoing burden of premature disease. Among men, over half of all strokes and nearly two-thirds of heart attacks affected those under 70. Women fared slightly better, but still saw around 40% of strokes and nearly half of heart attacks in this younger age group. The persistence of such high proportions of early events shows that much of Barbados’ cardiovascular disease remains preventable.
Download the outputs
The briefing outputs are available in three formats.
| Description | Download | |
|---|---|---|
| PDF briefing for reading or printing | Download PDF briefing | |
| View and use our briefing slide deck | Open briefing slides | |
| Excel workbook with data and metadata worksheets | Download Excel workbook | |
| Full public output package, including DTA, CSV, YML, PNG, workbook, and README files | Download ZIP package |
Suggested Citation
Barbados National Registry. Hospital Cardiovascular Cases in Barbados: BNR CVD case-count briefing, 2023. Barbados National Chronic Disease Registry, The University of the West Indies. Available at: https://uwi-bnr.github.io/info-hub/surveillance/cvd/briefings/case-counts.html. Accessed: [insert date accessed].