Association between disability measures and healthcare costs after initial treatment for acute stroke

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE - The distribution of 3-month modified Rankin scale (mRS) scores has been used as an outcome measure in acute stroke trials. We hypothesized that hospitalization and institutional care home stays within the first 90 days after stroke should be closely related to 90-day mRS, that each higher mRS category will reflect incremental cost, and that resource use may be less clearly linked to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) or Barthel index. METHODS - We examined resource use data from the GAIN International trial comparing 90-day mRS with total length of stay in hospital or other institutions during the first 90 days. We repeated analyses using NIHSS an..