Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Nursing, polled thousands of patients with a history of heart attack or surgery to prevent one and were a bit surprised by the answers they got.  Almost half of the patients polled are unfamiliar with heart attack symptoms and don’t even consider themselves at exceptional risk for a future adverse cardiovascular event.

The 3,522 survey respondents averaged 67 years of age and had had a history of a heart attack or surgery to treat narrowed arteries.  The average survey score was 71.  The score of 44% of the respondents was lower than 70, indicating a low level of knowledge of the subject matter, even though the knowledge is vitally important to a cardiac patient.

Scoring highest were women, participants in cardiac rehabilitation programs, the better educated, the younger respondents, and those who’d been treated by a cardiologist instead of an internist or family practitioner.

When assessing their own risk for a future heart attack, 43% downplayed the significance of their current state of health and said they were as likely, or even less likely, to experience a future myocardial infarction than many other people their age.  Of the men, 47% claimed to be at low risk of future attack while only 36% of the women reported low risk.

The research team, led by Kathleen Dracup, DNSc, suggests the limited hospital time now allowed for patients with heart disease under our current healthcare system doesn’t include enough time to adequately educate them as to all the risks, treatment options, and symptoms of the disease.  Of particular concern are heart disease patients who are elderly, male, poorly educated, and who have not been part of a cardiac rehab program.

Full details of the study are in the JAMA/Archives journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, dated May 26.