The impact of stroke on spousal and family income: a difference-in-difference study from Swedish national registries

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of spouses of persons with first-ever stroke in 2010 or 2011 in Sweden and the reference population.

Variable	Spouse	Reference
Number	2 348	9 389
Women (%)	1 768 (75)	7 068 (75)
Age at the year of the stroke event (SD)	52 (7)	52 (7)
Marital status
Married or registered partner	2 348 (100)	9 387 (99.98)
Divorced	0	2 (0.02)
Widow	0	0
Unmarried	0	0
Country of birth
Sweden (%)	1 768 (75)	7 565 (81)
Europe (%)	309 (13)	1 013 (11)
Outside Europe (%)	271 (12)	811 (9)
Educational level (%)
Less than high school	457 (19)	1 403 (15)
High school	1 110 (47)	4 336 (46)
More than high school	781 (33)	3 650 (39)
Mean individual income from paid work year of the stroke event (SD)	250 246 (219 421)	273 373 (206 117)
Mean disposable individual income year of the stroke event (SD)	233 123 SEK (181 403)	249 842 SEK (199 139)
Mean disposable family income year of the stroke event (SD)	523 278 SEK (436 534)	577 751 SEK (466 404)
Deceased
2012	13 (.55%)	22 (0.23%)
2013	7 (.30%)	20 (0.21%)
2014	8 (.34%)	16 (0.17%)
2015	7 (.30%)	30 (0.32%)
2016	13 (.56%)	22 (0.24%)
Stroke type^a of the person with stroke
Hemorrhagic stroke^b (%)	310 (13%)	NA
Ischemic stroke^c (%)	2 000 (86%)	NA
Other^d (%)	26 (1%)	NA
Person with stroke (%)
Alive at 3 months	2 342 (99.7)	NA
Dead at 3 months	6 (.3)	NA

^aStroke type is missing for 12 observations.

^bHaemorrhagic stroke includes ICD-10: I60 Nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, I61 Nontraumatic intracerebral hemorrhage or I62 Other and unspecified nontraumatic intracranial hemorrhage ^cIschemic stroke includes ICD-10: I63 Cerebral infarction ^dOther includes ICD-10: I64, I65 Occlusion and stenosis of precerebral arteries, not resulting in cerebral infarction or I67 Other cerebrovascular diseases.

Figure 1. Individual income from paid work, disposable individual income and disposable family income among spouses of persons with stroke and a reference population from five years before to five years after the stroke (year = 0).

The solid line represents spouses, and the dashed line represents the reference population

Table 2. Results from the primary and subgroup difference-in-differences analysis estimating the average impact of stroke on spouses’ individual and family income in the five years following the stroke event.

		Individual income from paid work		Disposable individual income		Disposable family income
	N persons	Coefficient (95% CI)	Adjusted p-value^a	Coefficient (95% CI)	Adjusted p-value^a	Coefficient (95% CI)	Adjusted p-value^a
Primary analysis	11 737	−209 (−778; 360)	0.590	−108 (−676; 460)	0.937	−3 995 (−5 327; −2 664)	<0.001
Subgroup analysis
mRS 0–2	8 290	−211 (−843; 420)	0.591	−335 (−1 061; 390)	0.521	−3 485 (−4 897; −2 073)	<0.001
mRS 3	723	726 (−1 249; 2 701)	0.590	−120 (−1 824; 1 585)	0.937	−8 642 (−14 033; −3 252)	0.008
mRS 4–5	710	2 868 (685; 5 051)	0.033	4 409 (958; 7 860)	0.036	−3 014 (−8 093; 2 064)	0.432
Women (all ages)	8 836	−297 (−877; 282)	0.497	280 (−425; 984)	0.590	−4 031 (−5 629; −2 432)	<0.001
Women ≤50	3 025	−1 614 (−2 622; −605)	0.008	−599 (−1 611; 413)	0.432	−6 877^b (−9 305; −4 449)	<0.001
Women >50	5 811	390 (−287; 1 068)	0.432	736 (−191; 1 663)	0.277	−2 544 (−4 601; −486)	0.041
Men (all ages)	2 901	−65^b (−1 410; 1 540)	0.937	−1 053 (−2 813; 706)	0.432	−3 899 (−6 196; −1 602)	0.005
Men ≤50	1 011	1 194 (−1 217; 3 605)	0.497	148 (−3 524; 3 821)	0.937	−2 681 (−7 181; 1 818)	0.432
Men >50	1 890	−600 (−2 359; 1 159)	0.591	−1 730 (−3 561; 101)	0.160	−4 621 (−7 107; −2 135)	0.002

^aP-values adjusted according to the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure due to multiple testing. Therefore, the interpretation of statistical significance can differ between the 95% confidence interval and the adjusted p-value.

^bp-value from pre-trend testing < 0.05, from the event-study.

Figure 2. Subgroup analysis showing individual income from paid work, disposable individual income and disposable family income among younger (age ≤50) and older women (>50) spouses of persons with stroke and a reference population from five years before to five years after the stroke (year = 0).

The solid line represents spouses, and the dashed line represents the reference population

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.