Many With Heart Disease Don't Know Signs of He...(of heart disease 44 percent didn't know ...),Health

Date:5/27/2008

of heart disease, 44 percent didn't know much about heart disease or their risk for heart attack. Women, people with higher education levels, those who had undergone cardiac rehabilitation, younger patients and those under the care of a cardiologist, rather than a family doctor, tended to know more, the researchers found.

While these people are at higher risk for heart attack, 43 percent said their risk was lower or the same as for other people their age. Among men, 47 percent thought they were at lower risk for a heart attack, as did 36 percent of women.

Dracup's group noted that emotional and cognitive factors play a part in whether patients seek immediate help for heart attacks.

Patients who do not know the symptoms of a heart attack, which can include nausea and pain in the jaw, chest or left arm, won't recognize the need for treatment. Moreover, patients with heart disease who don't see themselves as being at higher risk for heart attack, will look to other reasons for these symptoms, Dracup's team said.

Based on these findings, the team noted that heart patients need continued education about symptoms of heart attack and the benefits of early treatment and their increased risk.

"Our findings suggest that men, elderly individuals, those with low levels of education, and those who have not attended a cardiac rehabilitation program are more likely to require special efforts during medical office visits to review symptoms of acute myocardial infarction and to learn the appropriate actions to take in the face of new symptoms of acute coronary syndromes," the researchers concluded.

One expert thinks that doctors need to find ways to better educate patients about their risk for heart attack.

"This study suggests that health-care providers can do a much better job of providing continued education on risk status, cardiac symptoms, and the need for early assessment and treatment in patients with know
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