Stroke-Related Mortality Lower for Blacks Than Whites

Blacks more likely to get life-sustaining interventions, less likely to be discharged to hospice

FRIDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Blacks have lower mortality rates than whites following acute ischemic stroke, and they are more likely to receive life-sustaining interventions, according to research published in the Feb. 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Ying Xian, M.D., Ph.D., of the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C., and colleagues collected data on 5,319 black and 18,340 white adult patients hospitalized with acute ischemic stroke in New York hospitals to study differences in stroke mortality between the two races and explore possible reasons behind these differences.

After propensity score adjustment, the researchers found black race to be independently associated with lower in-hospital and all-cause mortality up to one year after hospitalization (odds ratios [ORs], 0.77 and 0.86, respectively). After the researchers adjusted for the possibility of in-hospital death, black stroke patients were more likely than whites to receive life-sustaining interventions (OR, 1.22), but less likely to be discharged to hospice care (OR, 0.25).

"Among patients with acute ischemic stroke, black patients had lower mortality than white patients. This could be the result of differences in receipt of life-sustaining interventions and end-of-life care," the authors write.

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