Components of information behavior in patients with cardiovascular disease participated in cardiac rehabilitation program

Information behavior focuses on how people find and use information for their work or personal needs. components of information behavior of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients throughout the program are under investigation. The purposes of the present study were to identify the information behaviors of cardiac patients over the third phase of CR programs.
In this mixed method research 44 Patients with cardiovascular disease were participated in martyr Rajai Hospital by convenience sampling method. An interview guide was prepared to conduct the interview. The questionnaire ‘reasons for seeking health information’ were developed based on a list proposed by warner and procaccino. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used for data analysis.
findings showed that cardiac patients in third phase of cardiac rehabilitation were most interested in information regarding learning for safety, healthy life style, risk factors, alternative therapies, Islamic and traditional medicine, state of the art and high tech medicine and also playing active roles in their daily lives, stress/psychological factors and trajectory of disease in the future. More than 95% of the participants reported that their health information seeking was driven by the desire for information about health-promoting behavior, or for information needed to make decisions about medication/treatment plans. majority of them reported that they use these information for sharing ideas with cardiac rehabilitation professionals and their peers, prevention of health risks and maintaining and promoting their health.
patients information behaviors varied over the course of their CR programs and the disease states. The future studies should be focused on any interventions that could boost information seeking and information behavior of these patients and improvement of information sharing between patients, families and CR health workers and to ensure these programs are meeting patient' information needs across all stages of recovery.