Determining the knowledge levels of patients with acute myocordial infarction about their own diseases

SUMMARY Determining the Knowledge Levels of Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction About Their Own Diseases This study was designed as a definitive study in order to investigate the knowledge levels of patients hospitalized in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit of Muğla State Hospital between the dates 28/09/2002 and 29/05/2003 with the diagnosis AMI about their disease,their socio-demographical characteristics and some other factors that could cause the development of AMI.The patient identification form and the questionnaire containing the questions for the evaluation of their level of knowledge about their disease were filled in one-to-one interviews with the 90 patients who were included in the study.For the evaluation of the data obtained, variant analysis with SPSS program and Kruskall-Wallis was used for the evaluation of the distribution of the entire data as numbers and percentages and dependent/independent variables and Tukey HSD and Tukey LSD analyses were used for the multiple comparisons of significant variables. As a result it was found that the average score of the patients for their general knowledge about the subject was 14,57±3,15 and the level of knowledge was affected from factors like age, education, profession, from levels of blood pressure and blood cholesterol and other co-existing diseases. In the light of these results, we have the opinion that informing of the patients who had suffered AMI and their relatives about the disease, following the patients in later stages and training of the nurses working in cardiological units about the subject with in-job training programs would be beneficial. Key words: Acute myocardial infarction, Patient, Nursery, Heart, Coronary Intensive Care Unit.