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Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa

BACKGROUND: South Africa currently faces an increasing burden of cardiovascular disease. Although referred to clinics after community screening initiatives, few individuals who are identified to be at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease attend. Low health literacy and risk perception hav...

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Autores principales: Surka, Sam, Steyn, Krisela, Everett-Murphy, Katherine, Gaziano, Thomas A., Levitt, Naomi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AOSIS OpenJournals 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4656922/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26842511
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v7i1.891
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author Surka, Sam
Steyn, Krisela
Everett-Murphy, Katherine
Gaziano, Thomas A.
Levitt, Naomi
author_facet Surka, Sam
Steyn, Krisela
Everett-Murphy, Katherine
Gaziano, Thomas A.
Levitt, Naomi
author_sort Surka, Sam
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: South Africa currently faces an increasing burden of cardiovascular disease. Although referred to clinics after community screening initiatives, few individuals who are identified to be at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease attend. Low health literacy and risk perception have been identified as possible causes. We investigated the knowledge and perceptions about risk for cardiovascular disease in a community. METHOD: We conducted a series of focus group discussions with individuals from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa. Different methods of presenting risk were explored. The data were organised into themes and analysed to find associations between themes to provide explanations for our findings. RESULTS: Respondents’ knowledge of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors varied, but most were familiar with the terms used to describe cardiovascular disease. In contrast, understanding of the concept of risk was poor. Risk was perceived as a binary concept and evaluation of different narrative and visual methods of presenting risk was not possible. CONCLUSION: Understanding cardiovascular disease and its risk factors requires a different set of skills from that needed to understand uncertainty and risk. The former requires knowledge of facts, whereas understanding of risk requires numerical and computational skills. Without a better understanding of risk, risk assessments for cardiovascular disease may fail in this community.
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spelling pubmed-46569222016-02-03 Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa Surka, Sam Steyn, Krisela Everett-Murphy, Katherine Gaziano, Thomas A. Levitt, Naomi Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med Original Research BACKGROUND: South Africa currently faces an increasing burden of cardiovascular disease. Although referred to clinics after community screening initiatives, few individuals who are identified to be at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease attend. Low health literacy and risk perception have been identified as possible causes. We investigated the knowledge and perceptions about risk for cardiovascular disease in a community. METHOD: We conducted a series of focus group discussions with individuals from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa. Different methods of presenting risk were explored. The data were organised into themes and analysed to find associations between themes to provide explanations for our findings. RESULTS: Respondents’ knowledge of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors varied, but most were familiar with the terms used to describe cardiovascular disease. In contrast, understanding of the concept of risk was poor. Risk was perceived as a binary concept and evaluation of different narrative and visual methods of presenting risk was not possible. CONCLUSION: Understanding cardiovascular disease and its risk factors requires a different set of skills from that needed to understand uncertainty and risk. The former requires knowledge of facts, whereas understanding of risk requires numerical and computational skills. Without a better understanding of risk, risk assessments for cardiovascular disease may fail in this community. AOSIS OpenJournals 2015-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4656922/ /pubmed/26842511 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v7i1.891 Text en © 2015. The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
spellingShingle Original Research
Surka, Sam
Steyn, Krisela
Everett-Murphy, Katherine
Gaziano, Thomas A.
Levitt, Naomi
Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title_full Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title_fullStr Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title_short Knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: Findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa
title_sort knowledge and perceptions of risk for cardiovascular disease: findings of a qualitative investigation from a low-income peri-urban community in the western cape, south africa
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4656922/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26842511
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v7i1.891
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