Knowledge and Beliefs about Risk Factor Information among Non-attendees in Cardiac
Rehabilitation Programs
Sammanfattning
Background: Scant attention has been given to patients who decline participation in cardiac rehabilitation programs (CRP).
Aim: The aim was to identify knowledge and beliefs about risk factor information associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) with a focus on sex and educational differences among CHD patients not attending a CRP.
Methods: Consecutive non-attendees (n=106) completed a questionnaire focused on patients'attitudes to risk factors and CRPs.
Findings: Knowledge and beliefs about risk factors important for CHD among non-attendees are overall low particularly in terms of depression, social isolation, diabetes, and hereditary factors. Female non-attendees considered information about hereditary factors and their importance for CHD to be a significantly more important issue than men. No statistically significant differences in beliefs about information on specific or general risk factors were found. There was, however, a significant difference in educational level. Non-attendees with a higher education level had obtained more information about CHD than those with a lower education level.
Conclusion: Non-attendees lack knowledge about known risk factors and their importance for CHD regardless of sex and education level.
There appears to be a need to develop more personal and flexible interventions in order to increase non-attendees' knowledge about risk factors for CHD.