The effect of 30-day adequate transitions of acute stroke care on 90-day readmission or death.

OBJECTIVES: We explore patient-reported behaviors and activities within 30-days post-stroke hospitalization and their role in reducing death or readmissions within 90-days post-stroke. METHODS: We constructed the adequate transitions of care (ATOC) composite score, measuring patient-reported participation in eligible behaviors and activities (diet modification, weekly exercise, follow-up medical appointment attendance, medication adherence, therapy use, and toxic habit cessation) within 30 days post-stroke hospital discharge. We analyzed ATOC scores in ischemic and intracerebral hemorrhage stroke patients discharged from the hospital to home or rehabilitation facilities and enrolled in the NIH-funded Transitions of Care Stroke Disparities Study (TCSD-S). We utilized Cox regression analysis, with the progressive adjustment for sociodemographic variables, social determinants of health, and stroke risk factors, to determine the associations between ATOC score within 30-days and death or readmission within 90-days post-stroke. RESULTS: In our sample of 1239 stroke patients (mean age 64 +/- 14, 58 % male, 22 % Hispanic, 22 % Black, 52 % White, 76 % discharged home), 13 % experienced a readmission or death within 90 days (3 deaths, 160 readmissions, 3 readmissions with subsequent death). Seventy percent of participants accomplished a ≥75 % ATOC score. A 25 % increase in ATOC was associated with a respective 20 % (95 % CI 3-33 %) reduced risk of death or readmission within 90-days. CONCLUSION: ATOC represents modifiable behaviors and activities within 30-days post-stroke that are associated with reduced risk of death or readmission within 90-days post-stroke. The ATOC score should be validated in other populations, but it can serve as a tool for improving transitions of stroke care initiatives and interventions.

Factors and Behaviors Related to Successful Transition of Care After Hospitalization for Ischemic Stroke.

BACKGROUND: Our objective is to describe adoption of the posthospitalization behaviors associated with successful transition of care and related baseline characteristics. METHODS: This study includes 550 participants in the Transition of Care Stroke Disparities Study, a prospective observational cohort derived from the Florida Stroke Registry. Participants had an ischemic stroke (2018-2021), discharged home or to rehabilitation, with modified Rankin Scale score=0-3 (44% women, 24% Black, 48% White, 26% Hispanic, 35% foreign-born). We collected baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. A structured telephone interview at 30-day postdischarge evaluated outcomes including medication adherence, medical appointment attendance, outpatient therapy, exercise, diet modification, toxic habit cessation, and a calculated composite adequate transition of care measure. Multivariable analyses assessed the association of baseline characteristics with 30-day behaviors. RESULTS: At 30 days, medication adherence was achieved by 89%, medical appointments by 82%, outpatient therapy by 76%, exercise by 71%, diet modification by 68%, toxic habit cessation by 35%, and adequate transition of care measure by 67%. Successful adequate transition of care participants were more likely to be used full-time (42% versus 31%, P=0.02), live with a spouse (60% versus 47%, P=0.01), feel close to ≥3 individuals (84% versus 71%, P<0.01), have history of dyslipidemia (45 versus 34%, P=0.02), have thrombectomy (15% versus 8%, P=0.02), but less likely to have a history of smoking (17% versus 32%, P<0.001), coronary artery disease (14% versus 21%, P=0.04), and heart failure (3% versus 11%, P<0.01). Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that multiple socio-economic factors and prestroke comorbid diseases predicted fulfillment of transition of care measures. There was no difference in outcomes during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2021) compared with prepandemic years (2018-2019). CONCLUSIONS: One in 3 patients did not attain adequate 30-day transition of care behaviors. Their achievement varied substantially among different measures and was influenced by multiple socioeconomic and clinical factors. Interventions aimed at facilitating transition of care from hospital after stroke are needed. REGISTRATION: URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/; Unique identifier: NCT03452813.

Disparities in transitions of acute stroke care: The transitions of care stroke disparities study methodological report.

OBJECTIVE: The Transitions of Stroke Care Disparities Study (TCSD-S) is an observational study designed to determine race-ethnic and sex disparities in post-hospital discharge transitions of stroke care and stroke outcomes and to develop hospital-level initiatives to reduce these disparities to improve stroke outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we present the study rationale, describe the methodology, report preliminary outcomes, and discuss a critical need for the development, implementation, and dissemination of interventions for successful post-hospital transition of stroke care. The preliminary outcomes describe the demographic, stroke risk factor, socioeconomic, and acute care characteristics of eligible participants by race-ethnicity and sex. We also report on all-cause and vascular-related death, readmissions, and hospital/emergency room representations at 30- and 90-days after hospital discharge. RESULTS: The preliminary sample included data from 1048 ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage discharged from 10 comprehensive stroke centers across the state of Florida. The overall sample was 45% female, 22% Non-Hispanic Black and 21% Hispanic participants, with an average age of 64 ± 14 years. All cause death, readmissions, or hospital/emergency room representations are 10% and 19% at 30 and 90 days, respectively. One in 5 outcomes was vascular-related. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the transition from stroke hospitalization as an area in need for considerable improvement in systems of care for stroke patients discharged from hospital. Results from our preliminary analysis highlight the importance of investigating race-ethnic and sex differences in post-stroke outcomes.

The association between social networks and functional recovery after stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Social determinants of health (SDOH), including social networks impact disability and quality of life post-stroke, yet the direct influence of SDOH on functional change remains undetermined. We aimed to identify which SDOH predict change on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) within 90-days after stroke hospitalization. METHODS: Stroke patients from the Transitions of Care Stroke Disparities Study (TCSDS) were enrolled from 12 hospitals in the Florida Stroke Registry. TCSDS aims to identify disparities in hospital-to-home transitions after stroke. SDOH were collected by trained interviewers at hospital discharge. The mRS was assessed at discharge, 30-, and 90-days post-stroke. Multinomial logistic regression models examined contributions of each SDOH to mRS improvement or worsening (compared to no change) from discharge to 30- and 90-days, respectively. RESULTS: Of 1,190 participants, median age was 64 years, 42% were women, 52% were Non-Hispanic White, and 91% had an ischemic stroke. Those with a limited social support network had greater odds of functional decline at 30-days (aOR = 1.39, 1.17-1.66), adjusting for age and onset to arrival time and at 90-days (aOR = 1.50, 1.10-2.05) after adjusting for age. Results were consistent after further adjustment for additional SDOH and participant characteristics. Individuals living with a spouse/partner had reduced odds of functional decline at 90-days (aOR = 0.74, 0.57-0.98); however, results were inconsistent with more conservative modeling approaches. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the importance of SDOH, specifically having a greater number of individuals in your social network in functional recovery after stroke.

Emergency department utilization among Hispanic and African-American under-served patients with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: To examine emergency department (ED) use among a sample of 349 low-income Hispanic and African-American patients with type 2 diabetes. The study used a theoretical model to conceptualize health services utilization as the end product of predisposing, enabling, and need-for-care characteristics. DESIGN: Cross-sectional sampling of consecutive subjects with diabetes attending 7 inner-city clinics that provide primary medical care to low-income residents in South Central Los Angeles. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred and forty-nine patients (Hispanics [67.3%] and African Americans [32.7%]) with type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: Thirty-two percent of this sample reported one or more visits to the ED for medical care within the 12-month period prior to the interviews. Moreover, 11.5% of the patients reported visiting the ED more than once and 4.6% of the patients admitted visiting the ED more than 2 times within the same 12-month period. In a staged path analysis, ED use was significantly predicted by the predisposing variables of younger age, female gender, African-American ethnicity, and less education as well as the enabling variable of ability to pay. In addition, the need variables of insulin injection and number of diabetes-related complications were also significantly related to ED utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency department (ED) utilization is considered to be closely linked to a patient's need-for-care characteristics. However, our study shows that the predisposing characteristics of participants with diabetes explained about the same amount of variance as need-for-care characteristics. The higher-than-anticipated importance of predisposing characteristics suggest that intervention strategies, which specifically target patients with these characteristics, should be a part of any broad approach to reducing ED use among patients with type 2 diabetes.