The Viewpoint of Patients with Cardiovascular Disease‎ Regarding the Importance of Health Knowledge Acquisition and its Role in the Treatment Process

Health knowledge acquisition, training, and controlling of risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) can not only reduce healthcare costs, but can also improve the quality of life (QOL) of patients and help prevent re-hospitalization. The purpose of this research was to evaluate heart patients’ point of view on health knowledge acquisition and its role in the treatment process.
This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 200 patients with CVD. Data were collected using a questionnaire the validity and reliability of which were, respectively, confirmed by experts and by means of test-retest (20, 0.82). Data were analyzed using descriptive (frequency and percentage) and analytical statistics (chi-squared test and marginal independence).
After the diagnosis of heart disease, 80.5% of patients had tried to enhance their knowledge about their disease. To increase their knowledge, all of them (161 individuals) used the physician as a source of knowledge acquisition. Overall, 146 (90.7%) patients had acquired knowledge regarding the causes of the disease. A small percentage of the patients believed that educational CDs could help improve their knowledge.
The results of this study can be used to plan for the improvement of health knowledge among patients. Determining the most common sources of knowledge acquisition can help in the provision of knowledge through these sources. This can also clarify the reasons for the lack of use of other sources.