Explaining and addressing racial disparities in stroke care and outcomes: A puzzle to solve now

In the United States, black patients face greater levels of long-term disability after stroke compared to their white counterparts. The underlying driving factors are poorly understood, much like missing pieces of a puzzle, limiting the implementation of effective strategies to mitigate such disparities. A better understanding of the time point of first emergence of racial differences in functional outcomes may help hone in on the underlying causes. For example, the presence of differences in functional outcomes by race at, or close to, the time of hospital discharge would suggest access and quality of acute care as the major driver. Conversely, functional outcome differences emerging long after the acute care hospitalization would point to quality of outpatient follow-up care and rehabilitation efforts as the main drivers.