Sex-Related Differences in Symptoms Among Patients Presenting with Acute Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Recognising acute stroke symptoms is crucial in providing timely treatment. However, evidence suggests that females often experience unique symptoms compared with males, resulting in delays to seeking medical attention and treatment. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated whether sex is associated with differences in acute stroke symptoms. Methods: Searches from 1946 to 7th September 2021 were carried out using MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and the Cochrane Library. Studies reporting acute stroke symptoms in adult females and males were eligible for inclusion. Eleven observational studies met the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale (NOS). Data were meta-analysed using a random-effects model. Results: Compared with males, females had higher odds of experiencing headache (odds ratio [OR]: 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01–1.59); change in level of consciousness (OR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.13–1.63); fatigue (OR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.04–2.25); and incontinence (OR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.29–1.60). In contrast, females were at lower odds of experiencing trouble speaking (OR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.64–0.96); trouble walking, loss of balance, or co-ordination (OR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.39–0.76); and dizziness (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64–0.94) compared with males. No difference was found in confusion, difficulty understanding speech, trouble seeing in one or both eyes, mental status change, and nausea or vomiting. Discussion: Sex differences do exist in some acute stroke symptoms. At the same time, the overlap in symptoms between sexes was substantial. Healthcare professionals and public health campaigns should continue to promote classic symptoms of acute stroke, whilst taking into account the less common symptoms and the potential differences in symptoms experienced by females and males.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.012 | 0.033 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.018 | 0.042 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.006 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".