ESOC 2025 | A study investigating self-reported general health among stroke survivors

It was an opportunity to present here. The idea was to look at the self-reported general health among stroke survivors. The topic is important as we have more and more stroke survivors and they have a longer lifespan due to recent treatments and interventions that we have. And we know that general health is an indicator of utilization of healthcare resources as well as the quality of life that they have. So in this study, we used a CDC survey called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 2016 to 2021. The idea was to screen for stroke survivors who had completed this survey and look at the way that they perceive their general health. In total, we included 130,000 stroke patients or stroke survivors in our study. The indicator of general health was a question that was asked during the survey and asked them how they feel about their general health, and the answer could have been from poor to excellent. Patients who reported excellent or very good, we categorized them as having favorable general health, and the rest were categorized as having poor general health. The study showed that almost more than half of the stroke survivors reported their general health as poor. And some of the factors that were playing a role in having poor general health were lower socioeconomic status, age, and also race and ethnicity. What was interesting was that we found a U-shape distribution in age related to general health; patients who were younger or older had a better report of general health compared to patients who were in middle age. We also found that white Americans had the best general health compared to blacks and Hispanics. After doing some regression analysis, we found that factors similar to education and income, as well as age and body mass index, are factors that are associated with general health. We also found that stroke survivors from the stroke belt in the United States, which includes areas in the mid-south and southeast of the United States – the states like Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi – they have poorer general health reported.

This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.