Patientsʼ Understanding of Cardiac Risk Factors

Abstract

A 1-day point-prevalence study was conducted in our 141-bed tertiary cardiac care hospital in order to determine our patients' and their significant others' level of understanding of cardiac risk factors in general and of the patients' personal cardiac risk factors. There were 3 parts to the study: patient interviews, significant other (SO) interviews, and an audit of the participating patients' charts. Of the 87 patients who were able to participate, 71 completed the interviews as did 53 significant others. From recall, only 14 patients and 11 significant others were able to define what a cardiac risk factor was ("Habits or factors that contribute to heart disease") and they were unable to identify many general risk factors. However, when given a recognition task where cardiac risk factors were interspersed with sham factors, the overall mean general knowledge score was 13.6 for patients and 13.9 for significant others out of 16. The correlation between the patients' understanding of their cardiac risk factors and the significant others' understanding of them was reasonably good (r = 0.58, P < .0001), as was the correlation between the SOs' understanding and the charts (r = 0.58, P < .0001). There was less agreement between the patients' understanding and the chart documentation of cardiac risk factors (r = 0.36, P < .01). The findings of this study have implications for patient teaching as well as for documentation of cardiac risk factors.

Degree and correlates of cardiac knowledge and awareness among cardiac inpatients

“…Results showed that those with less than high school education and with an annual income of less than $50,000 CAD had significantly lower CHD knowledge. This is consistent with what has been reported in the literature [7,17,19,23,26,29], whereby those with advanced education and income were more knowledgeable about CHD. These findings are problematic because low SES is strongly associated with an increased prevalence of CHD risk factors [4,53,54] and with greater morbidity and mortality among CHD patients [48,49,55,56].…”

“…Correlates of CHD Knowledge-Although some studies have reported significantly less knowledge among men [19,23], in the current study there were no sex differences in knowledge after adjusting for covariates. As well, contrary to previous studies which found that South Asians are significantly lacking in CHD knowledge [17,29,50], we were unable to find a difference between South Asians and non-South Asians.…”

“…One other Canadian study assessing risk factor knowledge among a small sample (N=71) of cardiac in-patients [19] reported a mean knowledge score of 85% correct, compared to the 72% broader knowledge score in our patient sample. Other studies have suggested a significant lack of CHD knowledge among the general population [50] and in patients themselves [17,20,29].…”

“…However, having a previous cardiac event was not significantly associated with CHD knowledge. Other studies have failed to report consistent findings regarding this association [19,24]. Although it is somewhat expected that patients who have had a previous cardiac event would have greater knowledge about their disease, our results may suggest that patients are being provided with insufficient information at the time of their event.…”

“…For example, those who have undergone a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be less likely to make lifestyle modifications because they feel "cured" from the relatively unintrusive intervention [28], putting them at a higher risk of further CHD progression. However, there are inconsistent findings regarding the degree and correlates of knowledge [17,19,20,29].…”