Researchers relied on data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database that contains information on more than 7 million hospital stays each year.
Investigators identified patients who received one of six common inpatient procedures after a stroke and divided those procedures into two types: procedures shown to have a definite beneficial effect on outcomes and procedures meant to preserve life but linked to poor outcomes, according to the report.
The first type included procedures such as thrombolysis or carotid revascularization. The second type included procedures such as a tracheotomy, gastrostomy or mechanical ventilation.
Researchers found that minority patients were nearly 10 percent more likely to undergo gastrostomies or tracheotomies and approximately 20 percent less likely to receive thrombolysis or carotid revascularization than white patients, according to the study.
While researchers said the results did not offer an explanation as to why minorities tend to undergo procedures that do little to improve the outcome after a stroke, they suggest access to healthcare, specifically a delay in arriving to the hospital, and physician bias contributed to the disparity, according to the report.
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