Hospital distance, socioeconomic status, and timely treatment of ischemic stroke.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether lower socioeconomic status (SES) and longer home to hospital driving time are associated with reductions in tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) administration and timeliness of the treatment.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective observational study using data from the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Registry (GWTG-Stroke) between January 2015 and March 2017. The study included 118,683 ischemic stroke patients age ≥18 who were transported by emergency medical services to one of 1,489 US hospitals. We defined each patient's SES based on zip code median household income. We calculated the driving time between each patient's home zip code and the hospital where he or she was treated using the Google Maps Directions Application Programing Interface. T

SUBMITTER: Ader J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6711658 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature