Impact of a national educational campaign to reduce patient delay in possible heart attack

Abstract

In 1989 the National Heart Foundation (NHF) of Australia's Heart Week campaign was directed towards encouraging those with symptoms of possible myocardial infarction (MI) to seek help as promptly as possible. To evaluate its effect, three surveys were conducted of patients admitted to 22 coronary care units (CCUs). Two (335 and 221 patients) preceded and one (253 patients) followed the public education campaign. During the third survey a subset of patients were asked why they delayed, how long they thought one should wait before seeking help, whether they were aware of the media campaign and whether this had influenced their behaviour. Overall, only 42% of 809 patients sought help within one hour (median delay 1.2 hours). The median time of arrival and the proportion of patients arriving within one, two and four hours was not altered after this campaign. Those who admitted to having been aware of the campaign sought help no more promptly. The Heart Week campaign could not be shown to have produced any clinically important change in patient delay. Future campaigns will need to be modified in the light of this experience.

Gender-specific differences in stroke knowledge, stroke risk perception and the effects of an educational multimedia campaign

“…We demonstrated in an earlier investigation that a gain in stroke knowledge does not necessarily lead to a change in the intended behaviour in acute stroke [25]. This phenomenon is known from earlier educational interventions in stroke and myocardial infarction [4]. With regard to cost-effectiveness, it must be discussed whether future interventions should predominantly target high risk audiences and focus correspondingly on immediate action more than on detailed knowledge of the disease.…”

Community-Based Education Improves Stroke Knowledge

“…data, 1999]. Public education campaigns, unfortunately, often document an increase in knowledge without a concomitant change in care-seeking behavior [31, 32], which is the real obstacle that must be overcome in order to deliver treatment.…”

Duration of, and Temporal Trends (1994-1997) in, Prehospital Delay in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

“…As examples of these studies, a public education campaign in Sweden resulted in reduced delay times, 19,20 whereas public education campaigns in the United States and Australia have failed to alter appreciably patient delay times compared with periods before the institution of these programs. 16,18,21,23 The greatest reductions in delay times were seen when a multiple-component intervention was used. The multiplecommunity randomized controlled Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment trial is examining the effects of public and health care provider educational programs on reducing the duration of prehospital delay in individuals with suspected coronary disease from 10 pairmatched communities throughout the United States.…”

“…13 A limited number, albeit uncontrolled, of public education campaigns using a variety of educational ap- proaches have been performed in an attempt to reduce the extent of delay in seeking medical care in persons with symptoms of acute coronary disease. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Three of these studies have been conducted in the United States and 6 in other countries. Most of these studies measured changes in delay times from before the intervention to after its implementation and did not include a concurrent comparison group.…”