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If you've had a stroke, you and your family will probably be anxious about the future. You may wonder whether you'll have another one, whether you'll be able to live your life like you did before, or if you'll need help because you have some disabilities. You may also want to know whether having a stroke will affect how long you can expect to live.

It's very difficult to say what will happen to you after a stroke. A lot depends on the type of stroke you had and how bad it was, as well as your age, whether this is your first stroke, and what your risk factors are. Risk factors are things that make it more likely that someone will have a stroke. To learn more, see Risk factors for strokes.

There are about 4.5 million people in the United States who have survived a stroke and are alive today: some of them have few, if any, after-effects, while others need full-time care.

Strokes are the leading cause of serious long-term disability in the United States. But it's also true that the brain has a remarkable ability to recover from injury. Certain parts of the brain may take over the function of cells that have been damaged by a stroke, so it's difficult to say whether the problems you have in the first few days after a stroke will still be there a few months later.

Research gives us some idea of what you can expect after a stroke, but even this can become out-of-date as doctors learn more about the best way to treat strokes and how to keep them from happening again.

No research statistics can tell you what will happen to you. They can only tell you what happened to the group of people who were studied at one particular time.

Here is what the research shows.^{1 2 3 4 5}

• The time it takes to recover from a stroke depends on how severe it is. (This relates to how much of your brain is affected and where in the brain the stroke happened.)
• One-half to two-thirds of all people who have had a stroke are able to live at home afterward.
• About 1 in 5 people who have had a stroke need to be cared for in a nursing home or other long-term care facility three months later.
• Between 15 percent and 30 percent of people who survive a stroke are permanently disabled.
• About half of the men and women who have a stroke when they are under the age of 65 die within eight years.
• About 1 in 6 people who've had a stroke have another one within a year.
• The amount of disability you have is likely to increase with each stroke.
• Of the people who are still alive 30 days after a stroke, about 1 in 3 will be completely independent within three weeks. At six months half the people who've had a stroke can live independently.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.