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Author Spotlight: Assessing Ischemic Stroke Damage Through Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Model
Published on: August 11, 2023
Sex differences in treatment and outcome after stroke: Pooled analysis including 19,000 participants
Cheryl Carcel1, Xia Wang2, Else Charlotte Sandset2
1From The George Institute for Global Health (C.C., X.W., C.D., M.L.H., P.M.V., J.C., M.W., C.S.A.), University of New South Wales, Sydney; Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School (C.C., X.W., C.D., M.L.H., C.S.A.), The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Departments of Neurology (E.C.S.) and Internal Medicine (E.B.), Oslo University Hospital; Department of Research and Development (E.C.S.), The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, Oslo, Norway; Department of Neurology (C.D.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Department of Public Health (H.A.), Fukuoka University, Japan; The George Institute for Global Health and Westmead Clinical School (R.L.), University of Sydney, Australia; Faculty of Health and Wellbeing (M.L.H.), The University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK; Unidad de Neurología Vascular (P.L., P.M.V., V.V.O., A.B.), Servicio de Neurología, Departamento de Neurología y Psiquiatría, Clínica Alemana de Santiago, Facultad de Medicina Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago; Departamento de Ciencias Neurológicas (P.L.), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile; Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (T.G.R.), University of Leicester, UK; Centro de Estudios Clínicos (P.M.V.), Instituto de Ciencias e Innovación en Medicina, Facultad de Medicina Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago; Departamento de Paciente Crítico (V.V.O.), Clínica Alemana de Santiago, Chile; The George Institute for Global Health (M.W.), University of Oxford, UK; Department of Epidemiology (M.W.), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; and The George Institute China at Peking University Health Science Centre (C.S.A.), Beijing, China. ccarcel@georgeinstitute.org.au.
Objective:
To explore the sex differences in outcomes and management after stroke using a large sample with high-quality international trial data.
Methods:
Individual participant data were obtained from 5 acute stroke randomized controlled trials. Data were obtained on demographics, medication use, in-hospital treatment, and functional outcome. Study-specific crude and adjusted models were used to estimate sex differences in outcomes and management, and then pooled using random-effects meta-analysis.
Results:
There were 19,652 participants, of whom 7,721 (40%) were women. After multivariable adjustments, women with ischemic stroke had higher survival at 3-6 months (odds ratio [OR] 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70-0.97), higher likelihood of disability (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.06-1.36), and worse quality of life (weighted mean difference -0.07, 95% CI -0.09 to 0.04). For management, women were more likely to be admitted to an acute stroke unit (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.01-1.34), but less likely to be intubated (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.36-0.93), treated for fever (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.70-0.95), or admitted to an intensive care unit (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74-0.93). For preadmission medications, women had higher odds of being prescribed antihypertensive agents (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.13-1.31) and lower odds of being prescribed antiplatelets (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.79-0.93), glucose-lowering agents (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.78-0.94), or lipid-lowering agents (OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.77-0.94).
Conclusions:
This analysis suggests that women who had ischemic stroke had better survival but were also more disabled and had poorer quality of life. Variations in hospital and out-of-hospital management may partly explain the disparities.
