An exploratory study of the use of the electronic health records of hypertensive patients to support the primary prevention of stroke in Shanghai

Abstract

Background The value of targeting people with a high risk of stroke based on electronic health records (EHRs) in Shanghai is largely undiscovered.Aim To test the hypothesis that EHRs might be developed into an evidence-based support system to identify people who are at high risk of stroke.Methods We performed a screen analysis utilizing EHRs to target the population with stroke risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and physical inactivity. We calculated the distribution of each risk factor and the combinations of risk factors.Results In the Jiading District of Shanghai, 46,580 hypertensive patients with complete baseline information joined the hypertensive patient management system from 2014 to 2017. The majority of the patients were older than 60 years. Physical inactivity (83.24%), smoking (24.07%), diabetes (16.87%), and obesity (12.23%) were highly prevalent in hypertension participants. Approximately 4377 patients had hypertension only, accounting for 9.70% of the total patients in this study. Approximately 52.47% of the patients had two risk factors at the same time, and 38.13% of the patients had hypertension, which means that 17,762 patients could be identified as a high-risk population for stroke according to the criteria established by the National Stroke Screening Survey.Conclusion Our exploratory findings suggest the feasibility of targeting populations with a high risk of stroke using the EHRs of hypertensive patients.

Effect of stroke screening survey on intravenous thrombolysis and long-term outcomes in acute ischemic stroke patients: the real- world evidence from Shanghai, China

“…We retrospectively reviewed residences with stroke center admission by Residences Community Health Records and the 4S database, from January 2017 to December 2019 in Jiading district, Shanghai, China. Jiading district was chosen for two reasons: firstly, Jiading is a suburban district of Shanghai, which means the situation of this district was relatively stable, with 1.60 million residences at the end of 2019 and there were more elderly people in Jiading (15); secondly, the medical information system in Jiading was constructed better than many other districts in Shanghai, where its electronic health records are helpful to identify patient stroke screening information (16).…”