Abstract HUP3: Neighborhood Deprivation and Functional Outcomes Following Ischemic Stroke

Abstract

Introduction: The association between neighborhood deprivation and risk of disease is well-documented. However, the role of neighborhood deprivation in long-term outcomes following acute brain injury remains understudied. We tested the hypothesis that neighborhood deprivation leads to unfavorable long-term functional outcomes following acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods: We conducted a nested study within the Yale Longitudinal Study of Acute Brain Injury, a prospective study which follows patients with acute brain injury admitted to the Yale Health System. The present study focused on AIS survivors and assessed neighborhood deprivation using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a metric that uses 9-digit zip codes to rank neighborhoods based on income, employment, education, and housing quality. Patients were stratified into tertiles based on their ADI, designated as low, intermediate, or high deprivation. Functional outcomes were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale at one-year post-stroke, dichotomized into favorable (scores 0-2) and unfavorable (scores 3-6). Our analysis employed multivariable logistic regression for adjusted analyses. Results: Among 2,540 AIS patients enrolled between 2018 and 2021, 2,164 patients had zip code and outcomes data (mean age 69 years, 48% female, 7.5% Black, 7.7% Hispanic). The one-year unadjusted risk of poor outcomes was 35%, 40% and 46% for patients residing in neighborhoods with low, intermediate, and high deprivation, respectively (unadjusted p=0.001). These findings remained significant in multivariate analyses that controlled for confounding factors: compared to patients living in neighborhoods with low deprivation, those living in areas with intermediate and high deprivation had 44% (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.11-1.86) and 107% (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.58-2.72) greater risk of unfavorable outcomes (test-for-trend p<0.001). Conclusion: Our study, focusing on survivors of AIS participating in a prospective acute brain injury study, underscores the connection between neighborhood deprivation and an elevated risk of unfavorable outcomes. We validate the utility of the ADI as a valuable analytical tool for evaluating neighborhood deprivation as a composite for several social determinants of health.