Cognitive Representation, Emotional Responses and Hospitalization Experience in Predicting Decision Making for Receiving Treatment Among Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Purpose: To examine the factors predicting decision making for receiving treatment among patients with acute coronary syndrome. Design: Correlational predictive research. Methods: The samples comprised 92 patients with acute coronary syndrome were admitted in a super tertiary level hospital, Bangkok. Data were collected by the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ). The statistics used in the analysis include descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation, multiple regression analysis, and the Mann-Whitney U test. Main findings: The results revealed that the median decision time to seek treatment was 37 minutes from onset (mean = 120 minutes, S.D. = 157.087). Three components of cognitive representation (illness identity, control/cure, and consequences), emotional response, and hospitalization experience with acute coronary syndrome could predict the decision making for receiving treatment at 67.1%, The control/cure component and the consequences component which could predict decision making for receiving treatment of the participant, which was statistically significant (p < .05 and .001). This study found that patients who had hospitalization experience with acute coronary syndrome decide to receive treatment later than patients who had no experience at a significance level of 0.05. Conclusion and Recommendations: Nurses must be aware of cognitive representation and to make plans for providently information to patient in order to orientation or develop informational interventions to establish correct understanding about treatment and promote appropriate decision making for receiving treatment.