A number of components improve the danger of heart problems. Many of those we are able to affect ourselves by way of adjustments in life-style or preventive drug remedy. However folks’s attitudes to prevention fluctuate with their perceptions of heart problems. Well being communication to help preventive measures due to this fact must take into consideration folks’s sickness perceptions.
Åsa Grauman and three colleagues carried out a web based survey with 423 randomly chosen Swedes aged 40 to 70 years. Contributors have been requested to reply questions on themselves and about how they view heart problems. They then participated in an experiment designed to seize how they weighted their preferences concerning well being examine outcomes.
The outcomes confirmed all kinds of perceptions about heart problems. Ladies extra usually cited stress as their most essential threat issue whereas males extra usually cited obese and weight problems. An fascinating result’s that individuals who acknowledged that they smoked, had hypertension, have been obese or lived sedentary, tended to downplay that issue as much less dangerous for heart problems. Alternatively, individuals who acknowledged that they skilled stress had an inclination to emphasise stress as a excessive threat of heart problems. Individuals who reported household historical past as a private threat of sickness confirmed a higher reluctance to take part in well being examinations.
Concerning preferences about well being examine outcomes, it was discovered that the members most popular to have their outcomes offered in on a regular basis phrases and with an total evaluation (somewhat than, for instance, in numbers). Additionally they most popular to get the ends in a letter (somewhat than by logging in to an internet site) that included life-style suggestions, they usually most popular half-hour of session (over no or solely quarter-hour of session).
It is very important attain out with the message that the danger of heart problems may be affected by life-style adjustments, and that well being checks can establish threat components in people who find themselves in any other case asymptomatic. Particularly folks with a household historical past of heart problems, who within the research have been extra reluctant to bear well being examinations, may have to concentrate on this.
To achieve out with the message, it must be tailored to how folks understand heart problems, and we have to change into higher at supporting appropriate perceptions, the authors conclude. I’ve talked about solely a small collection of outcomes from the research. If you wish to see the richness of outcomes, learn the article: Public perceptions of myocardial infarction: Do illness perceptions predict preferences for health check results.
Åsa Grauman, Jennifer Viberg Johansson, Marie Falahee, Jorien Veldwijk. 2022, Public perceptions of myocardial infarction: Do sickness perceptions predict preferences for well being examine outcomes. Preventive Drugs Experiences 26, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101683
Exploring preferences
