Abstract P23: Age Disparities in Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes in US Veterans With Ischemic Stroke

Background This is the first study of age disparities in ischemic stroke care quality and post-stroke outcomes across the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system. Methods This was a retrospective study of a national sample of US veterans admitted to VA medical centers for ischemic stroke between 10/1/06 and 9/30/07. The following 14 inpatient stroke quality indicators were assessed: 1) dysphagia screening before oral intake; 2) NIH Stroke Scale completion ; 3) thrombolysis; 4) DVT prophylaxis; 5) early antithrombotic therapy; 6) early ambulation; 7) fall risk assessment; 8) pressure ulcer risk assessment; 9) rehabilitation consultation); 10) antithrombotic therapy at discharge; 11) atrial fibrillation management; 12) lipid management; 13) smoking cessation counseling; and 14) stroke education. Post-stroke outcomes included: risk-adjusted mortality (in-hospital and 6-month post-stroke); and hospital readmission (30-day and 6-month). Four age categories were assigned (<65, 65-74, 75-84, and ≥85 years). We modeled each quality indicator (defined as pass or fail among eligible patients) using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for race, stroke severity, comorbidity, smoking status, APACHE II score, hospital geography, complexity and volume. Results Among the 3,937 US Veterans with ischemic stroke, the overall pass rate among the quality indicators was > 70% for 9 of the 14 processes of care. Patients ≥85 years old were less likely than younger patients to receive atrial fibrillation management, smoking cessation counseling, NIHSS documentation, and early ambulation (p < .05). Patients aged ≥85 years were more likely to have dysphagia screening (p < .05). Risk adjusted mortality was higher among patients aged ≥85 years compared with each of the younger patient groups in both in-hospital mortality (p < .0001) and 6-month mortality (p < .0001). The oldest patients also had higher 6-month hospital re-admission rates than each of the younger patient groups (p = .002). Conclusions Despite overall good quality of inpatient stroke care within the VA system, further work is needed to investigate possible associations between patient age, disparities in quality indicators and outcomes of post-stroke.