Improving Awareness of Health Care Disparities in Stroke Patients: A Coffee Talk Approach

Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States and worldwide. Unfortunately, stroke deaths and disabilities continue to disproportionately affect minority populations and those living in rural areas. The social determinants of health also have a tremendous impact on the outcomes of stroke prevention and disease. There are gaps in provider awareness and confidence in recognizing how health disparities affect stroke outcomes, highlighting the ongoing need to strengthen understanding and capacity to address these disparities. By increasing awareness of the impact of health disparities, stroke outcomes can improve.

Stroke coordinators from the Minnesota Statewide Stroke System were invited to participate in an Evidence-Based Practice project to increase their confidence in understanding the impact health care disparities have on stroke outcomes. The education for this project was in the form of informal discussions (dubbed "coffee talks") on the topic of health care disparities. Video segments from the American Heart Association International Stroke Conference 2023 were used as the catalyst for conversation. After 4 discussion sessions, the stroke coordinators were questioned with a retrospective survey on the pre- and post-discussion confidence of their knowledge of the impact of health disparities on stroke outcomes.

A survey was deployed after the last discussion date to 89 stroke coordinators within the Minnesota Stroke System. Of the 89 stroke coordinators, 15 responded to the survey; 9 attended the coffee talks. The 9 stroke coordinators reported an increase in confidence in understanding the impact of health disparities on stroke outcomes. The respondents were also able to articulate how they would use the knowledge from the discussions in their place of work.

Informal discussions may be an effective way to improve knowledge of health care disparities.