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WEDNESDAY, April 17, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Rates of hospitalization for stroke have fallen since 1988 for both black and white Medicare enrollees, while black men and women have had greater improvements in 30-day mortality after stroke, according to a study published in the April issue of Medical Care<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Jamie Yao, M.D., from the University of California in Los Angeles, and colleagues assessed differences in the rates of first stroke hospitalizations and 30-day mortality after stroke between black and white Medicare enrollees from 1988 to 2013.<\/p>\n
The researchers identified 1,009,057 incident hospitalizations for ischemic strokes and 147,817 for hemorrhagic strokes. For both stroke subtypes, there was a significant decrease in annual stroke hospitalizations over time for both blacks and whites. Between blacks and whites, reductions in stroke rates were similar: For men, the odds ratios for the interaction term for race by year were 1.008 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.004 to 1.012) for ischemic and 1.002 (95 percent CI, 0.999 to 1.004) for hemorrhagic; for women, the odds ratios were 1 (95 percent CI, 0.997 to 1.004) for ischemic and 1.003 (95 percent CI, 1.001 to 1.006) for hemorrhagic. Over time, there were greater improvements in 30-day mortality after strokes for both black men and women.<\/p>\n
“Although black Americans continued to experience higher rates of stroke hospitalizations than whites, there have been considerable improvements in stroke incidence and short-term stroke-related mortality over the past 25 years shared by both black and white Medicare enrollees,” the authors write.<\/p>\n