Effectiveness of therapeutic education in patients with myocardial infarction

Introduction. Notwithstanding the development of modern diagnostic-therapeutic techniques, cardiovascular diseases still pose a grave health, social, and economic issue. Patients hospitalised for acute coronary syndrome should, in addition to establishing an optimal pharmacotherapy, be made aware of how to prevent this disease and recognise it using its typical symptoms and signs. Objective. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention based on educational brochures in patients with myocardial infarction with regard to socio-demographic factors and baseline patients’ knowledge. Material and methods. The single-centre, prospective, observational study was conducted in a cohort of 248 patients with myocardial infarction (women n = 72, men n = 176), hospitalised between May 2015 and July 2016. Consistently with the results of univariate analysis, multivariate analysis identified age (–3.73/10 years; p < 0.0006) and the level of education (10.37; p < 0.0001) as independent factors influencing patients’ prehospital knowledge. Results. According to multivariate analysis of the level of knowledge following the educational intervention, the only factors affecting the process of learning were age (–2.04/10 years; p < 0.03) and remaining in a steady relationship (9.7; p = 0.0003). Among factors influencing the increase of knowledge, only the level of education was of statistical significance (–6.09; p < 0.02). Conclusions. The educational brochure proved to be an effective tool for therapeutic education, allowing minimisation of the disparities between the examined groups and improvement of the breadth of patients’ knowledge.