Jiang X, Morgenstern LB, Cigolle CT, et al. - Mexican Americans (MAs) exhibited a greater age-adjusted multiple chronic conditions (MCC) burden, which explained some of the ethnic differences in functional outcome (FO). MCC prevention and treatment may help to reduce post-stroke functional impairment and ethnic differences in stroke outcomes.

• Data were acquired from patient interviews, medical records, and hospital discharge data in a prospective cohort of ischemic stroke patients (2008–2016) from Nueces County, Texas.

• Seventy percent of the 896 patients were MA, and 51% were female.

• The mean age of the participants was 68 ± 12.2 years.

• At 90 days, 33% of patients were reliant on activities of daily living (ADL)/instrumental ADLs (FO score > 3, indicating a lot of difficulty with ADL/instrumental ADLs).

• MAs showed a considerably greater age-adjusted MCC burden than non-Hispanic White persons.

• After adjusting for age, initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and sociodemographic characteristics, patients with a high MCC score (at the 75th percentile) scored 0.70 points higher in the FO score (indicating worse FO) than those with a low MCC score (at the 25th percentile).

• MCC explained 19% of the ethnic variation in FO, whereas ethnicity effect modification was not statistically significant.