Objectives: Although disparities exist in aspirin administration for chest pain and ST elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI), little is known about community-based disparities in aspirin administration for prehospital patients. We evaluated disparities in prehospital aspirin using a national prehospital database.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the 2018-2021 NEMSIS database linked to census data, including adult prehospital encounters. We created two cohorts: dispatch reason of chest pain and identified STEMI on prehospital EKG. We stratified patients based on majority ZIP Code race/ethnicity (>50% White, Black, and Hispanic) and into quartiles based on household income. Using multivariable logistic regression, we evaluated the association between incident community characteristics and aspirin administration.
Results: We included 4,881,663 chest pain encounters and 184,610 STEMIs. Chest pain encounters in majority White communities (32.3%) received aspirin more often for chest pain than Black (22.1%; aOR 0.59, [0.59-0.60]) or Hispanic (24.8%; aOR 0.66, [0.66-0.67]) communities. Compared to the top income quartile (29.0%), the lowest income quartile had lower odds of aspirin administration (4th-27.6%; aOR 0.93, [0.92-0.94]). For STEMIs, adjusted odds of aspirin administration were higher for White (53.4%) than Black (52.5%; aOR 0.81, [0.78-0.84]) or Hispanic (53.6%; aOR 0.93, [0.89-0.96]) patients. Compared to the highest income quartile (55.0%), lower quartiles had lower odds of aspirin administration (2nd-54.2%; aOR 0.95, [0.92-0.97]; 3rd-52.9%; aOR 0.93, [0.91-0.96]; 4th-52.0%; aOR 0.86, [0.84-0.89]).
Conclusions: Patients from Black, Hispanic/Latino, and lowest-income communities received aspirin for chest pain at a lower rate than white or high-income patients.