Background: Understanding the gap between evidence-based recommendations and real-world management is important to inform priority setting and health service planning.
Methods: The 7,776 residents in the Italian Lombardy Region who were newly hospitalized for transient ischemic attack (TIA) during 2008-2009 entered into the cohort and were followed until 2012. Exposure to medical care including selected drugs, diagnostic procedures and laboratory tests was recorded. A composite outcome was employed taking into account all-cause death and hospitalization for stroke and acute myocardial infarction. A multivariable proportional hazards model was fitted to estimate hazard ratio, and 95% confidence intervals (CI), for the exposure-outcome association.
Results: During the first year after discharge, 8.6, 49.7 and 48.5% of patients did not use any drugs, diagnostic procedures and laboratory tests respectively. Patients exposed to medical care had 59% reduced risk (95% CI, 50 to 66%) with respect to those who did not use any of these services.
Conclusions: Although the Italian National Health System supplies universal coverage for healthcare, several TIA patients receive suboptimal care. Systematic improvements are necessary in order to improve patient outcomes.
Keywords: Acute myocardial infarction; Healthcare utilization database; Mortality; Population-based cohort study; Stroke; Transient ischemic attack.