In France, one objective of the “2010–2014 National Stroke Action Plan” was to develop follow-up care and rehabilitation (SSR) facilities in order to insure home return in the best conditions.

The objective of this study was to describe recent temporal trends in admissions in SSR facilities after hospitalization for stroke from 2010 to 2014.

Patients hospitalized for cerebral infarction (CI) or hemorrhagic stroke (HS) during the nine first months of each year from 2010 to 2014 were selected from exhaustive national French hospitalization databases. Among patients alive at the end of the index hospitalization, admissions in SSR facilities were searched till 3 months. Time trends were studied using quasi-Poisson regression model. Prognostic factors of admission in SSR services were identified by logistic regression model.

During the nine first months of 2014, 68,074 patients were hospitalized for stroke and did not die during their hospitalization. Among them, 24,690 (36%) were admitted in SSR units in the 3 months following the end of the index hospitalization. HS and presence of a paralysis were strongly associated with SSR admission. Male sex and previous stay in stroke unit were positively associated with SSR admission among patients aged under 65 and negatively associated among those aged 65 or over. Between 2010 and 2014, a significant increase in SSR admission rate was only observed among stroke patients aged under 35 years or over 75 years. The proportion of neurological rehabilitation increased substantially and constituted 40% of SSR admissions in 2014. Functional dependence score at admission and its evolution during SSR hospitalization remained steady over the study period.

SSR admission rates after stroke remained low and did not rose during the study period except in the elderly. However, favorable trends in admissions in SSR units specialized in neurological rehabilitation were observed.