Daily Dose: Black Adults with Afib Less Likely to Receive Oral Anticoagulation at Hospital Discharge

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On October 31, 2022, we reviewed a study published in JAMA Cardiology that used data from the Get With The Guidelines–Atrial Fibrillation (GWTG-AFIB) registry to compare oral anticoagulation (OAC) use at discharge and atrial fibrillation (AF)-related outcomes by race and ethnicity.

The study

Researchers used data collected between 2014 and 2020 related to demographics, medical history, and clinical characteristics of people with AF. In total, investigators retrieved data for 69 553 patients from 159 participating sites. Mean age among participants was 72 years and 49.1% were women.

The results

After adjustment for socioeconomic status and community-level social determinants of health, Black patients with AF are 25% less likely to be discharged on oral anticoagulation and when they are, 27% less likely to receive a newer direct OAC. One year later, the risk of stroke among Black patients was 2 times greater than among White patients and the risk of mortality 1.2 times higher.

Clinical implications

"There is an urgent need for interventions to achieve pharmacoequity in guideline-directed AF management to improve overall outcomes," wrote authors.

Click here for the full study review.