Survey of Potential Disparity Issues Among Minority Stroke Survivors in Central Brooklyn.

Medical data and information are ubiquitous due to internet availability. However, most people persist in using and trusting their healthcare professionals for health information. They are increasingly flooded with health information from diverse sources such as the internet, community-based organizations, and family or friends. It is crucial to understand where stroke patients vary in the use and trust of health information to improve their conditions. This pilot study aimed to better understand the nature of the problems confronted by stroke patients, such as the source of reliable health information, trust in the healthcare system, and technology trend awareness. African American and Afro-Caribbean stroke patients (n=64) residing in Central Brooklyn, New York, participated in a survey. The results showed that physicians remained the most highly trusted information sources for stroke patients, particularly among patients with higher education, irrespective of the available communication sources.

Discontinuity of Stroke Care in a Black Urban Cohort: Insight from EHR Data.

This poster describes the findings from a study that attempts to characterize an underserved Black stroke cohort who are at risk for discontinuities of care using electronic health record (EHR). Preliminary analysis revealed that 90.1% of the patients were Black. After being diagnosed with a stroke, 57% of the population did not return for follow-up. The objective is to understand the factors contributing to discontinuity of care in Black stroke patients.

Do digital health interventions hold promise for stroke prevention and care in Black and Latinx populations in the United States? A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Black and Latinx populations are disproportionately affected by stroke and are likely to experience gaps in health care. Within fragmented care systems, remote digital solutions hold promise in reversing this pattern. However, there is a digital divide that follows historical disparities in health. Without deliberate attempts to address this digital divide, rapid advances in digital health will only perpetuate systemic biases. This study aimed to characterize the range of digital health interventions for stroke care, summarize their efficacy, and examine the inclusion of Black and Latinx populations in the evidence base. METHODS: We searched PubMed, the Web of Science, and EMBASE for publications between 2015 and 2021. Inclusion criteria include peer-reviewed systematic reviews or meta-analyses of experimental studies focusing on the impact of digital health interventions on stroke risk factors and outcomes in adults. Detailed information was extracted on intervention modality and functionality, clinical/behavioral outcome, study location, sample demographics, and intervention results. RESULTS: Thirty-eight systematic reviews met inclusion criteria and yielded 519 individual studies. We identified six functional categories and eight digital health modalities. Case management (63%) and health monitoring (50%) were the most common intervention functionalities. Mobile apps and web-based interventions were the two most commonly studied modalities. Evidence of efficacy was strongest for web-based, text-messaging, and phone-based approaches. Although mobile applications have been widely studied, the evidence on efficacy is mixed. Blood pressure and medication adherence were the most commonly studied outcomes. However, evidence on the efficacy of the various intervention modalities on these outcomes was variable. Among all individual studies, only 38.0% were conducted in the United States (n = 197). Of these U.S. studies, 54.8% adequately reported racial or ethnic group distribution. On average, samples were 27.0% Black, 17.1% Latinx, and 63.4% White. CONCLUSION: While evidence of the efficacy of selected digital health interventions, particularly those designed to improve blood pressure management and medication adherence, show promise, evidence of how these interventions can be generalized to historically underrepresented groups is insufficient. Including these underrepresented populations in both digital health experimental and feasibility studies is critical to advancing digital health science and achieving health equity.