Intro: Mortality for patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has improved over time, but sex- and racial/ethnic disparities remain. Whether disparities have changed over specific time periods following hospitalization is poorly understood. Aim: To assess mortality trends across separate time periods following incident AMI hospitalization by sex and race. Methods: Using Medicare fee-for-service data covering all patients with incident AMI hospitalizations from 2008 to 2018, we examined unadjusted mortality rates by sex and race/ethnicity for the following time periods: acute (in-hospital), post-acute (0-30 days after hospital discharge), short term (31 days to 1 year after discharge), and long term (1-3 years after discharge). Each period was considered separately (i.e., patients who died during one period were not counted in later periods). Results: We identified 768,084 patients hospitalized with incident AMI (mean age 81 years, 48% male, 87% White) between 2008-2018. Figures 1 and 2 show annual mortality rates and trends. From 2008-2018, men and women had similar in-hospital and post-acute mortality, but women had persistently higher short- and long-term mortality compared to men. In 2008, Black patients had higher mortality rates compared to White patients for every period studied. In-hospital mortality rates were similar by 2018 but remained higher for Black patients for every other time period. Conclusions: For incident AMI patients, mortality rates have improved across subgroups through 3 years after discharge. However, women have had persistently higher mortality rates 1-3 years following hospitalization compared to men, while Black patients have had persistently higher mortality rates 30 days – 3 years following hospitalization compared to White patients. These results suggest that opportunities to reduce sex- and race-based AMI disparities might be particularly effective in longitudinal outpatient care following hospital discharge.
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