Weekend Effect on in-Hospital Mortality for Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Stroke in US Rural and Urban Hospitals

Previous studies have reported a "weekend effect" on stroke mortality, whereby stroke patients admitted during weekends have a higher risk of in-hospital death than those admitted during weekdays.

We aimed to investigate whether patients with different types of stroke admitted during weekends have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality in rural and urban hospitals in the US.

We used data from the 2016 National Inpatient Sample and used logistic regression to assess in-hospital mortality for weekday and weekend admissions among stroke patients aged 18 and older by stroke type (ischemic or hemorrhagic) and rural or urban status.

Crude stroke mortality was higher in weekend admissions (p <0.001). After adjusting for confounding variables, in-hospital mortality among hemorrhagic stroke patients was significantly greater (22.0%) for weekend admissions compared to weekday admissions (20.2%, p = 0.009). Among rural hospitals, the in-hospital mortality among hemorrhagic stroke patients was also greater among weekend admissions (36.9%) compared to weekday admissions (25.7%, p = 0.040). Among urban hospitals, the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke patients was 21.1% for weekend and 19.6% for weekday admissions (p = 0.026). No weekend effect was found among ischemic stroke patients admitted to rural or urban hospitals.

Our results help to understand mortality differences in hemorrhagic stroke for weekend vs. weekday admissions in urban and rural hospitals. Factors such as density of care providers, stroke centers, and patient level risky behaviors associated with the weekend effect on hemorrhagic stroke mortality need further investigation to improve stroke care services and reduce weekend effect on hemorrhagic stroke mortality.