Do We Tell Our Coronary Patients Enough?

Thirty two men and their wives discussed their experiences of the admission to hospital and subsequent rehabilitation following a threatened or confirmed myocardial infarction. Over all, the level of information and understanding about their condition was poor. Patients would have liked to have had more specific advice about rehabilitation and to have been told more about their condition. Thirteen discharging doctors indicated on a short questionnaire what advice they had given to their patients. This exercise confirmed the suspicion that while patients' memory might have been poor, they had not been given extensive information before they left hospital. In particular, although all of the men were married and under 65 years of age, only 38% of the doctors said that they had discussed sexual activity and of the whole sample (31 men) only 25% of the men recalled having been advised on this subject. Patients and their wives felt that they would have worried less if they had been better informed. Persistent symptoms were related more to worry and depression than to the extent of myocardial damage.