Evaluation of Physicians' Compliance With Secondary Prevention Among Ischemic Stroke Patients: A Retrospective Study

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death world-wide. Globally, stroke affects 13.7 million individuals every year. Several studies have shown an increase in the rehospitalization rate among stroke patients caused by non-adherence to secondary preven-tion as recommended by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) guideline. The aim of this study was to evaluate physicians' compliance with secondary prevention of stroke upon patients' discharge. Methods: A retrospective chart review study was conducted at King Fahad Medical City. The primary outcome of this study was the num-ber of patients discharged with the recommended medications for the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke (IS). The data were collected from the patient's medical record files and analyzed using the Statisti-cal Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: Of the 675 patients who were screened for eligibility, 507 were included and 168 were excluded. The mean age of the patients was 59.5 (& PLUSMN; 15.6) years. Of the 507 patients, 181 (35.7%) had a his-tory of previous stroke. Overall, 376 (74%) stroke patients were dis-charged with appropriate secondary prevention recommendation per AHA/ASA guideline. Conclusions: This study stresses the importance of compliance with the AHA/ASA guideline for secondary stroke prevention and high-lights the role of pharmacists in the stroke unit in which it is neces-sary to ensure that all stroke patients are discharged with the recom-mended medications to reduce recurrent stroke.