(Patients' action during their cardiac event: qualitative study exploring differences and modifiable factors)
Click below to download PDF document
You will require Acrobat Reader to view file.
Click here for PDF document
Every year around 333,000 people in the UK have a heart attack. One of the key factors affecting the consequences of a heart attack is patients' delay in seeking help for their symptoms. In this week's BMJ, Ruston et al investigate why people having a heart attack delay in seeking medical assistance and find that generally it is because they do not realise what they are actually experiencing. The authors conclude that the myth that a heart attack is always a dramatic event in which people collapse with crushing chest pain needs to be dispelled and that there should be greater awareness of more common symptoms such as pain in the arms and neck, sweating, breathlessness and nausea.
Contact:
Professor Michael Calnan, Centre for Health Services Studies, George Allen Wing, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury
t: 01227 827645
m.calnan@ukc.ac.uk