AAN 2026 | The relationship between the socioeconomic status of a hospital and acute stroke treatment in the US
Laura Stein, MD, MPH, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY, discusses the relationship between the socioeconomic status of a hospital and acute stroke treatment in the US. Dr Stein highlights that hospitals with lower socioeconomic status were less likely to treat with these intravenous thrombolysis and endovscular thrombectomy, and this association was also linked to differences in patient outcomes. This interview took place at the 78th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
So we wanted to look at the socioeconomic status of a treating hospital and whether its socioeconomic status seemed to be associated with the likelihood that an individual patient would be treated with thrombolysis or thrombectomy. Historically, I think a lot of studies have looked at the socioeconomic status of the patient, but we want to know about the hospital itself. So we used what’s called the area deprivation index to assess the socioeconomic status of the, essentially the area surrounding the hospital...
So we wanted to look at the socioeconomic status of a treating hospital and whether its socioeconomic status seemed to be associated with the likelihood that an individual patient would be treated with thrombolysis or thrombectomy. Historically, I think a lot of studies have looked at the socioeconomic status of the patient, but we want to know about the hospital itself. So we used what’s called the area deprivation index to assess the socioeconomic status of the, essentially the area surrounding the hospital. And then once we knew the socioeconomic status of the treating hospitals, we saw if there was an association between socioeconomic status and likelihood of treatment with thrombolysis or thrombectomy. What we found was that hospitals with lower socioeconomic status were less likely to treat with both intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy. And in fact, that association was stronger for thrombectomy. We also found that there were some differences in patient outcomes, like the likelihood of discharge home and the likelihood of mortality with poor likelihood or lower likelihood for hospitals with lower socioeconomic status. These findings are really important because they add to the growing body of evidence that suggests where one gets treated for stroke really matters in this country and the importance of making sure that we equitably treat all patients with stroke regardless of where they present to receive care.
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