Testing a model of delayed care-seeking for acute myocardial infarction

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Publication Title

Clinical Nursing Research

Volume

19

Issue

1

First Page

38

Keywords

Acute myocardial infarction, Adaptation, Psychological, adaptive behavior, article, Care-seeking delay, Cross-Sectional Studies, cross-sectional study, heart infarction, human, Humans, Models, Psychological, myocardial infarction, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, patient attitude, psychological model, Retrospective Studies, retrospective study, Structural equation modeling

Last Page

54

DOI

10.1177/1054773809353163

Abstract

A theory-testing approach to the study of delay in seeking treatment for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was performed using a descriptive design with 135 AMI patients. Participants provided information pertaining to history of AMI, symptom congruence, responses to symptoms, cardiac symptom attribution, and AMI care-seeking delay. Structural equation modeling fit indices suggested that the independent predictors of AMI care-seeking delay were cardiac symptom attribution and emotion-focused coping. History of AMI had a direct relationship with AMI care-seeking delay, but its total effect through symptom attribution and symptom congruence was not significant. The total effect of symptom congruence on AMI care-seeking delay was significant. In conclusion, the study findings highlight the importance of targeting cardiac symptom attribution and emotion-focused coping in interventions that are aimed at reducing AMI care-seeking delay. © The Author(s) 2010.

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