Post-stroke follow-up care considerably worse for women than men
Women who survive a stroke have shorter lengths of stay, receive fewer cardiologist referrals and are less likely to undergo cardiac monitoring than men, according to new data presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2025.
These findings all stem from an updated analysis of DiVERT Stroke, an in-depth look of the follow-up care received by more than 2,500 stroke survivors from 2017 to 2019. Forty-eight percent of patients included in DiVERT Stroke were women.
Overall, researchers found that female patients were less likely to receive a cardiology referral (12.8% vs. 15.5%), less likely to receive post-stroke cardiac monitoring (19.9% vs. 23%) and had a shorter mean length of stay (6.8 days vs. 7.7 days) than male patients.
“Women have a higher lifetime risk of stroke compared to men, and yet these findings suggest that when it comes to post-stroke care, women are seeing cardiology less often and getting less cardiac monitoring care than their male counterparts,” David Z. Rose, MD, a professor of vascular neurology at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine at Tampa General Hospital and lead investigator of DiVERT Stroke, said in a statement. “Standardizing care pathways between neurology and cardiology is one way to help ensure more stroke patients receive guideline-informed cardiac monitoring after a stroke. Further research on this topic is needed and may include artificial intelligence solutions.”
Rose et al. also found that post-stroke cardiac monitoring is an effective way to identify signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). AFib was detected in 7.4% of women and 8% of men who underwent such monitoring compared to 3.9% of women and 3.5% of men who did not.
The group is still reviewing DiVERT Stroke data for additional outcomes. They hope to learn more, for example, about how workflow improvements could help minimize this ongoing disparity between men and women who require post-stroke healthcare.
Click here for additional details about International Stroke Conference 2025, scheduled for Feb. 5-7, 2025, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.