Regional Disparities in Prehospital Delay of Acute Ischemic Stroke: The Korean Stroke Registry

Background: Late hospital arrival keeps patients with stroke from receiving recanalization therapy and is associated with poor outcomes. This study used a nationwide acute stroke registry to investigate the trends and regional disparities in prehospital delay and analyze the significant factors associated with late arrivals. Methods: Patients with acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack between January 2012 and December 2021 were included. The prehospital delay was identified, and its regional disparity was evaluated using the Gini coefficient for nine administrative regions. Multivariate models were used to identify factors significantly associated with prehospital delays of >4.5 h. Results: A total of 144,014 patients from 61 hospitals were included. The median prehospital delay was 460 min (interquartile range, 116–1912), and only 36.8% of patients arrived at hospitals within 4.5 h. Long prehospital delays and high regional inequality (Gini coefficient > 0.3) persisted throughout the observation period. After adjusting for confounders, age > 65 years old (adjusted odds ratio aOR = 1.23; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.19–1.27), female sex (aOR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.05–1.13), hypertension (aOR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08–1.16), diabetes mellitus (aOR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.33–1.43), smoking (aOR = 1.15, 95% CI, 1.11–1.20), premorbid disability (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI, 1.37–1.52), and mild stroke severity (aOR = 1.55; 95% CI, 1.50–1.61) were found to independently predict prehospital delays of >4.5 h. Conclusion: Prehospital delays were lengthy and had not improved in Korea, and there was a high regional disparity. To overcome these inequalities, a deeper understanding of regional characteristics and further research is warranted to address the vulnerabilities identified.