Studies point to high costs of delayed access to stroke care, younger stroke patients taking longer to go to hospital

Canadian studies presented at the World Stroke Congress include:

• The University of Calgary-led found delays of just one hour to stroke care result in poorer outcomes for patients and greatly increased healthcare costs. The study concluded that within the first six hours, every hour of delay in starting the endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) procedure resulted in an average loss for the patient of 9 months at full quality of life (quality-adjusted life year or QALY). As for cost, every hour of delay within the first six hours resulted in increased healthcare costs of $6,173 per QALY and society costs of $7,597 per QALY. Within the first three hours, treatment delay of two hours would result in average losses for the patient of close to 2 QALYs (2 years) and extra healthcare and societal costs of $11,000 and $15,000 per QALY (year), respectively;
• A Heart & Stroke Foundation study of pre-hospital behaviour of young stroke patients compared to older ones found that young adults (ages 18-44), especially women, were less likely to take an ambulance to the hospital when they had a stroke. Hospital arrival time was an average 7 hours for older adults and younger men, but 9 hours in younger women;
• An Atlantic Canadian study showed that aerobic exercise combined with cognitive training improved executive function by almost 50% in chronic stroke patients who were presumed to have reached their recovery plateau.
• A study looking at existing outpatient stroke rehabilitation resources in Canada concluded that with the growing number of patients surviving stroke combined with the growing number of strokes projected among the aging population, community-based stroke rehabilitation services aren't sufficient to meet the current demand, resulting in patient's rehabilitation and recovery needs not being met.