Background and Purpose:
Secondary stroke prevention medications (SSPs) have been shown to prevent recurrent stroke, but few national reports of prescribing SSPs are available from hospitals regardless of their participation in national quality improvement programs. We examined SSP prescribing at discharge following hospitalization for adjudicated incident ischemic stroke (IS) in a large national cohort and unselected hospitals.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective review of incident IS admissions within the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort; admissions were to unselected hospitals. Exclusions were history of stroke, hospital death, missing data, and prevalent use of the medication of interest. Race, sex, age, rurality of residence (as defined by Rural Urban Commuting Area codes) were obtained at REGARDS baseline. Admission and discharge medications were obtained from hospital records. Associations between characteristics and discharge SSP prescriptions were examined using logistic regression adjusting for race, age, sex, and rurality.
Results:
From 2003-2011, of 657 IS, 429 met inclusion criteria. Mean age of participants was 73 (42% Black, 49% female, 27% non-urban). Antithrombotic therapy (antiplatelet/anticoagulant) was prescribed for 87%, statins 36% (10% 80mg), and ACE-I/ARB for 16%. We observed no statistically significant differences in prescribing antithrombotics or statins by race, sex, age, or rurality. Participants in non-urban areas had lower odds of ACE-I/ARB at discharge (OR 0.38, 0.15-0.98), with no differences by race, sex, or age.
Conclusions:
The majority of participants with incident IS within REGARDS were newly prescribed antithrombotics at discharge but alarmingly few were newly prescribed statins or ACE-I/ARBs. Our findings among incident SSP users differ from previous reports among prevalent users within hospitals participating in a national quality improvement program. More studies of quality of care after IS at unselected hospitals are needed.
Using intervention mapping to develop and adapt a secondary stroke prevention program in Veterans Health Administration medical centers
