Understanding Disparities in Stroke Care: Sana Somani, MD, MBBS

“I would like to explore more as to the causes of these disparities, which would require survey-based research both from the provider to address their biases, and from the patient and family to address their beliefs and concerns regarding health outcomes. Only if we clearly know the causes will we be able to address it appropriately.”

Women and African American patients have lower functional performance during acute inpatient rehabilitation than men and Caucasian patients after intracerebral hemorrhagic (ICH) strokes, according to a recent study presented by Sana Somani, MD, MBBS, vascular neurology fellow, University of Maryland Medical Center, at the 2021 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, April 17-22.

Somani and colleagues retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 65 patients with ICH admitted between December 2016 through December 2019 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham care center. They found that being male was positively associated with Functional Independence Measure (FIM) efficiency (β=1.02; P = .0063) after adjusting for race and ICH score, while FIM efficiency was lower in African American patients (β=-0.95; P = .0092) after adjusting for gender and ICH volume. No significant differences with respect to discharge FIM scores were observed between ICH volumes and scores.

NeurologyLive spoke with Somani to learn more about the disparities in stroke care and other medical care that are becoming clearer with recent research. She also discussed further research she would like to conduct with regard to these disparities and how to address them.

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REFERENCE

Somani S, Nanavati H, Xiaohua Z, Lin C. African American women have lower functional performance during acute inpatient rehabilitation after intracerebral hemorrhagic strokes. Presented at 2021 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; April 17-22. Abstract P5 073