Original paper
Awareness of risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients admitted for coronarography and their expectations after invasive treatment

Introduction and objectives: During everyday interviews with patients admitted to the Department of Invasive Cardiology (DIC) for coronarography, we inferred that most of them do not know the risk factors of CAD, and they cannot define the aim of invasive procedure and invasive treatment. It appears that introduction of education programmes concerning CAD could contribute to the improvement of the results of treatment.
Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was conducted among 200 consecutive patients admitted to DIC. Patients completed the questionnaire examining their knowledge concerning risk factors of CAD and coronarography. 189 patients were assigned for the study (the rest of the questionnaires were not returned).
Results: An affirmative answer to a question about increased cholesterol level was obtained in 60.8% of patients but almost every tenth patient (accounting for 9% of all participants) was not undergoing any anticholesterol treatment. Every fifth patient did not know what their cholesterol level was. 21.5% of patients defined referenced values for cholesterol level as less than 200mg/dl. 59.8% of the surveyed participants had hypertension. 25.9% of patients did not know the reference values for arterial blood pressure. Past smokers constituted 24.3% of all participants, whereas current smokers accounted for 12.7%. 13% of current smokers did not intend to stop smoking. Most of the patients knew what coronarography was, but over half of them were not aware of the complications of the procedure. Patients who expected that their ailments would decrease or disappear after coronarography accounted for 51.3% of the group, and only every third patient (32.8%) knew that this diagnostic procedure. 43 participants (22.7%) constituted a separated group of patients with diabetes and CAD. 54.5% of patients, in the total examined group, did not know the reference glucose values or did not answer this question. In the group of patients with diabetes the percentage value was smaller, albeit still significantly high (25.6%). Most of the patients who admitted that they did not know reference glucose values, reported values which were similar to the reference values. Patients with diabetes more often underwent PCI or CABG (p<0.009), which may suggest that they are aware of the complications after coronarography, in comparison with patients without diabetes (p<0.038).
Clinical implications: From our investigations we conclude that patients, residents of the Podlasie region, are not sufficiently aware of the risk factors of their disease, and this problem still applies to patients with diabetes. It seems advisable to introduce actions leading to reduction of this phenomenon. Our department will soon introduce a short-term education programme based on the results of the questionnaire.