Awareness and readiness to combat risk factors for cardiovascular disease: results of a survey of patients and doctors using open questions

Abstract

Relevance. Assessment of the cardiovascular risk factors (RF) knowledge is important for the development of disease preventive programs. It is shown that awareness of the RF does not guarantee readiness for their correction, and there is a potential gap between intention and behavior. Ample evidence suggests that a physician’s commitment to a healthier lifestyle and RF control increases patient confi in his recommendations. Assessment of the subjective attitude to RF for the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and the readiness for their correction not only in patients, but also in doctors is an important task both for the health of the doctors themselves and indirectly for their future and current patients.Objective. To assess the subjective attitude to RF for the development of CVD and the readiness for their correction in doctors and patients of one medical organization.Design and methods. The study included 58 doctors and 55 patients who were consecutively hospitalized in different departments of the Medical Research and Education Center of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov. Doctors and patients of the cardiology department were not included in the study. All questions about CVD RF were open. The number of answers was not limited.Results. The analysis included 58 questionnaires of doctors and 52 questionnaires of patients. The median age of physicians was 37 [31; 48] years, among them 40 % were men. The median age of patients was 61 [49; 71] years, men — 42 %. Physicians expectedly showed higher awareness of various RF for CVD. They called an average of 4,9 ± 2,0 RF, and patients — 3,9 ± 1,6, but the difference was not significant. Physicians were more aware of carbohydrate metabolism disorders, malnutrition, physical inactivity, sleep disturbances, and stress as CVD RF (all p < 0,001), with more frequent patients, than physicians indicated smoking (67,3 % and 27,6 %, respectively, p < 0,001). Female physicians were statistically significantly less likely to report obesity (4,3 % and 25,7 %, respectively, p = 0,013). At the same time, they indicated hypertension more often than men (13,0 % and 2,6 %, respectively, p = 0,018). Physicians named one RF that threatened their own health more (p < 0,001). At the same time, physicians were willing to try to change less than half of these factors, while inpatients were determined to change two-thirds of the factors (45,9 % and 66,1 %, p = 0,012). Conclusions. The level of physicians’ awareness of CVD RF and readiness for change remains relatively low. To combat the growing burden of CVD in Russia, it is necessary to maximize the potential of not only cardiologists, but also doctors of other specialties, as channels of reliable information about health, develop and implement measures to increase awareness of the circumstances that contribute to the development of CVD, as well as tools for self-management of risks, not only among patients, but also among medical workers.