Supervisors info:
Μπροκαλάκη- Πανανουδάκη Ηρώ, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια, Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Καλοκαιρινού Αθηνά, Καθηγήτρια, Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Φώτος Νικόλαος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of cardiovascular disease, one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with an increasing number of patients. The degree of knowledge of patients and their adherence to treatment is a determining factor in the progression of the disease.
Aim: To relate the level of knowledge of CAD patients regarding their disease with their adherence to treatment.
Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, where 52 patients with CAD participated in, who were hospitalized at a cardiology clinic of a General Hospital of Athens from May to November 2018. The following tools were used for data collection: "Heart Disease Knowledge Questionnaire "," The patients learning needs scale "(PLNS) and" A14-scale ". The IBM SPSS 22.0 package was used for the management and statistical analysis of the results.
Results: The median age of the study patients was 72.9 years (SD = 11.35 years) and the majority was male patients (63.5%). Patient knowledge of their disease was modest, with the average of patients answering correctly to 18 out of the 30 questions of the “Heart Disease Knowledge Questionnaire”. It was found that there was a statistically significant and highly negative correlation between the knowledge of heart disease and the adherence to medication (rho = -0.67, p <0.0005). Sex was affecting in a statistically significant manner in medication adherence (U = 200, p = 0.031), with males being more adhered to their medication than women. The level of education affected the knowledge of heart disease (H = 12.23, df = 2, p = 0.002) with an increase in the level of education leading gradualy to a higher knowledge. Correspondingly, an increase in the level of education led to a gradual increase in drug adherence (H = 6.92, df = 2, p = 0.031). Finally, the majority of patients in the study were not adhered to their medication (80.7%).
Conclusions: Most patients of the study had a modest level of knowledge about CAD and did not show any adherence to medication. It was found that as the knowledge of patients increases, the levels of adherence to treatment increase. Healthcare professionals, with nurses being at the prominent point, must implement educational interventions to address the serious issue of reduced adherence, covering patient knowledge deficits.
