Abstract Body: Background
Prior research has identified a strong relationship between individual personality characteristics and prehospital delay in acute myocardial infarction. However, it is unclear whether these trends are present among stroke patients.

Methods
Time is Brain is a current multicenter observational trial assessing the impact of social network dynamics on pre-hospital delay in stroke patients. Demographics, social network data, personality metrics, and hospital arrival timelines were collected from patients with acute stroke syndrome presenting to Yale New Haven Hospital and Mass General Brigham. Personality scores in eight domains were assigned to each participant based on their responses to an abbreviated version of the Big Five Inventory (OCEAN). Average personality scores for fast (<6 hours) and slow arrivers (>6 hours) were compared using an unpaired two-tailed t test. Subsequently, logistic regression analysis was performed to compare personality metrics between arrival groups while adjusting for known risk factors of prehospital delay including age, stroke severity, emergency medical services usage and living alone. All analyses were performed in R version 4.1.1.

Results
183 patients with acute stroke syndrome were enrolled between Jan 2023 and Jul 2024 (mean age 66.35 ± 18.63, 53.1% Male, median NIHSS 2). 92.3% (n=169) self-identified as non-Hispanic and 19.7% (n=36) as Black. 31.1% (n=57) were considered low SES either by education level or income. When comparing personality metrics between fast and slow arrivers, slow arrivers had significantly higher compassion scores (mean 4.80 v. 4.57, 95% CI: 0.01-0.44, p=0.04). This difference remained significant when adjusting for the effect of patient age, NIHSS, EMS usage, and living alone (p=0.01). Additionally, when accounting for the effect of these risk variables, slow arrivers had significantly higher negative emotionality scores (mean 2.41 v. 2.31, p=0.03).

Conclusion
In the present cohort, patients with delayed hospital arrival following the discovery of stroke symptoms had more compassionate personalities, a difference that remained significant when controlling for the effect of established delay risk variables. Additionally, slow arrivers had higher negative emotionality when adjusting for these same factors. This preliminary analysis will inform future investigation of the role of personality in stroke prehospital delay.