Perceived benefits and barriers of preventive behaviours of relapsed myocardial infraction

Cardiovascular diseases are among 46% of deaths in Iran. Changing lifestyle is very important for the disease control. If the patients perceive the benefits of preventive behaviours, the barriers to those behaviours will decline and the probability of engaging in the behaviours will increase. This study carried out to determine perceived benefits and barriers of preventive behaviours of relapsed myocardial infraction.

This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 patients with a history of myocardial infraction referred to Yazd Cardiovascular Research Center during 2007. A questionnaire was used for data collection which measured perceived benefits of, barriers to preventive behaviours of myocardial infraction relapse and status of those behaviours. Data was analyzed using SPSS-13 and Pearson coefficient and regression tests.

Subjects earned a mean score of 30.24 (out of 36) in perceived benefits and 22.07 (out of 68) in perceived barriers and 24.48 (out of 37) in preventive behaviours. Preventive behaviours was positively correlated with net benefit and negatively with perceived barriers.

This study showed that in spit of suitable level of perceived benefits of myocardial infraction, but still the perceived barriers are significant enough and therefor removal of barriers to such behaviour are essential.