Supplementary Material for: Geographic Variation in One-Year Recurrent Ischemic Stroke Rates for Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries in the USA Allen N.B. Holford T.R. Bracken M.B. Goldstein L.B. Howard G. Wang Y. Lichtman J.H. 10.6084/m9.figshare.5120998.v1 https://karger.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Supplementary_Material_for_Geographic_Variation_in_One-Year_Recurrent_Ischemic_Stroke_Rates_for_Elderly_Medicare_Beneficiaries_in_the_USA/5120998 <i>Background:</i> While geographic disparities in stroke mortality are well documented, there are no data describing geographic variation in recurrent stroke. Accordingly, we evaluated geographic variations in 1-year recurrent ischemic stroke rates in the USA with adjustment for patient characteristics. <i>Methods:</i> One-year recurrent stroke rates for ischemic stroke (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision codes 433, 434 and 436) following hospital discharge were calculated by county for all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries from 2000 to 2002. The rates were standardized and smoothed using a bayesian conditional autoregressive model that was risk-standardized for patients’ age, gender, race/ethnicity, prior hospitalizations, Deyo comorbidity score, acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, dementia, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obesity. <i>Results:</i> The overall 1-year recurrent stroke rate was 9.4% among 895,916 ischemic stroke patients (mean age: 78 years; 56.6% women; 86.6% White, 9.7% Black and 1.2% Latino/Hispanic). The rates varied by geographic region and were highest in the South and in parts of the West and Midwest. Regional variation was present for all racial/ethnic subgroups and persisted after adjustment for individual patient characteristics. <i>Conclusions:</i> Almost 1 in 10 hospitalized ischemic stroke patients was readmitted for an ischemic stroke within 1 year. There was heterogeneity in recurrence patterns by geographic region. Further work is needed to understand the reasons for this regional variability. 2010-01-13 00:00:00 Stroke, recurrent Small-area analysis Variation, geographic Recurrence