Abrishami, Shabnam

Background: Geographic and temporal distribution of disparity authorships is unclear. Our aim was to examine authorship trends in 2020-2023 American Heart Association (AHA) abstracts reporting social and demographic disparities. Methods: We reviewed 801 AHA conference abstracts, analyzing 723 reports. Regional information of authors and their reported disparities related to gender, race, region, healthcare access (HCA), comorbidities (CO), socioeconomic status (SES) were collected. Descriptive and trend analyses were performed using Chi-square tests, and Pearson's and Kendall's Tau b correlation tests. P <0.05 was considered significant. Results: We analyzed 1440 primary and senior authorships from 723 abstracts. The majority of authors (92%) were from North America, predominantly USA (90%), with a significant representation from the South (33.6%) vs. other regions (Image 1). Disparities on outcomes such as race, gender, SES, CO, geographical locations, and HCA were reported as 53.9%, 33.9%, 26.6%, 24.9%, 17.8%, and 13.6% respectively. From 2020 to 2023, there was a declining trend in authors reporting on gender (ptrend<0.001) and HCA (ptrend-0.03) disparities, whereas disparities on SES had an increasing trend (ptrend<0.001). An increase in reporting of gender disparities was associated with increased reporting of racial disparities (r = .081, τb = .081). We also found positive correlations between SES and HCA (r = .155, τb = .155). Conversely, there was a negative correlation between gender and SES (r = -0.133, τb = -0.133), and between CO and healthcare access HCA (r = -0.078, τb = -0.078). All correlations were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The trends show that authors have reported more SES disparities in recent times compared to HCA, race, and gender. With expected financially challenging times ahead, to address these findings, it remains important to focus research on income based equalities in HCA and outcomes.

Introduction: Cognitive impairment has a significant impact on functional recovery and quality of life in stroke patients. Given the emerging role of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) as a biomarker for predicting post-stroke cognitive decline, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate this association. Methods: We systematically searched SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases until May 2023 using relevant keywords. Pooled effect sizes were estimated using a random-effects model, and I2 statistics and leave-one-out sensitivity analysis were performed to assess heterogeneity and robustness, respectively (p-value < 0.05 considered significant). Results: The final analysis included five studies spanning the years 2018-2023, with a total sample size of 9,625 patients, all from China, and predominantly male (57.85%). The median follow-up period was 3 months. Patients with higher hs-CRP levels had a higher burden of smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and lower education levels. The meta-analysis revealed an increased risk of cognitive impairment after ischemic stroke associated with higher hs-CRP levels (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.15; 95% CI: 1.01-1.30, p - 0.03). Substantial heterogeneity was observed among the studies (I2 = 79.23%; p < 0.01). However, a leave-one-out sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the findings, indicating that no single study strongly influenced the overall results. Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides evidence of an association between elevated hs-CRP levels and cognitive impairment following ischemic stroke. However, the limited number of studies, mainly from a specific population, highlights the need for further research to enhance the generalizability of these findings.