Use of reperfusion therapy and time delay in patients with ischaemic stroke by immigration status: A register-based cohort study in Denmark

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Reperfusion therapy is the mainstay of treatment for acute ischaemic stroke (AIS); however, little is known about the use of reperfusion therapy and time delay amongst immigrants.

METHODS: This is a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study of patients with AIS aged ≥18 years (n = 49,817) recruited from 2009 to 2018. Use of reperfusion therapy (intravenous thrombolysis and/or mechanical thrombectomy) and time delay between immigrants and Danish-born residents were compared using multivariable logistics and quantile regression.

RESULTS: Overall, 10,649 (39.8%) Danish-born residents and 452 (39.0%) immigrants with AIS were treated with reperfusion therapy in patients arriving <4.5 h following stroke onset. Compared with Danish-born residents, immigrants had lower odds of receiving reperfusion therapy after adjustment for prehospital delay, age, sex, stroke severity, sociodemographic factors and comorbidities (adjusted odds ratio 0.67; 95% confidence interval 0.49-0.92, p = 0.01). The lowest odds were observed amongst immigrants originating from Poland and non-Western countries. Similarly, immigrants had a longer prehospital delay than Danish-born residents in the fully adjusted model in patients arriving <4.5 h after stroke onset (15 min; 95% confidence interval 4-26 min, p = 0.03). No evidence was found that system delay and clinical outcome differed between immigrants and Danish-born residents in patients eligible for reperfusion therapy after adjustment for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities.

CONCLUSION: Immigration status was significantly associated with lower chances of receiving reperfusion therapy and there may be differences in patient delay between immigrants and Danish-born residents in patients arriving to a stroke unit <4.5 h after stroke onset.