Race-Ethnic Disparities in Hospital Arrival Time after Ischemic Stroke

Conflicting reports exist about hospital arrival time after stroke onset in Hispanics compared with African Americans and Caucasians. Our current study investigates race-ethnic disparities in hospital arrival times after stroke onset.

We performed a retrospective analysis of hospital arrival times in Hispanic, African American, and Caucasian acute ischemic stroke patients (N=1790) presenting to a tertiary-care hospital in the Bronx, New York. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify the association between race-ethnicity and hospital arrival time adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), NIH stroke scale (NIHSS), history of stroke, preferred language and transportation mode to the hospital.

There were 338 Caucasians, 662 Hispanics, and 790 African Americans in the cohort. Compared with Caucasians, African Americans and Hispanics were younger (P<.0001 respectively), had lower SES (P<.001 respectively) and were less likely to use EMS (P=.003 and P=.001, respectively). A greater proportion of Hispanic and African American women had delayed hospital arrival times (≥3 hours) after onset of stroke symptoms compared with Caucasian women (74% of Hispanic, 72% of African American, and 59% of Caucasian women), but this difference between race-ethnicities is no longer present after adjusting for socioeconomic status. Compared with Caucasian men, hospital arrival ≥3 hours after symptom onset was more likely for African American men (OR 1.72, 95% CI:1.05-2.79) but not Hispanic men (OR .80, 95% CI .49-1.30).

African American men and socially disadvantaged women delay in presenting to the hospital after stroke onset. Future research should focus on identifying the factors contributing to pre-hospital delay among race-ethnic minorities.