health
Stroke survival rates better for black than white patients
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 14, 2011
Black stroke patients have better survival rates than white stroke patients, according to a study in the Feb. 1 Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers studied 5,319 black and 18,340 white patients, 18 and older, who were hospitalized with acute ischemic stroke between January 2005 and December 2006 at 164 New York hospitals. They found that in-hospital mortality was lower for blacks than for whites (5% versus 7.4%). Mortality from all causes also was lower for blacks, with 16.5% of black patients dying within a year compared with 24.4% of white patients.
The better outcomes could be a result of blacks being more likely to receive life-sustaining interventions while hospitalized and less likely than whites to be discharged to hospice, according to the study (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/02/14/hlbf0214.htm.
