80% of heart attack survivors do not comply with all treatment measures after a year

Madrid, November 6 (EFE). The study, carried out by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the 12 October Hospital, analyzed the adherence of patients with acute myocardial infarction to therapeutic measures of secondary pharmacological prevention, diet and physical activity. , showing that eight out of ten affected people are not adhering to any therapeutic measures a year after suffering a heart attack.

As stated in the UCM note, some of the factors that explain lack of adherence include being a woman, family care burden, diabetes, depression, or being overweight.

According to their data, 84.6% of patients who have suffered an acute myocardial infarction do not “adequately” comply with at least one of the three secondary prevention treatment measures (diet, physical activity and drug treatment), Complutense points out in a note.

Specifically, work published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology shows that one year after hospital discharge, 67.1% of patients do not take medications properly, 43.24% do not eat properly following the Mediterranean diet guidelines, and 28.6 % of patients do not engage in physical activity or, if they do, it is light.

The researchers say the factors that cause patients with acute myocardial infarction to fail to adhere to secondary prevention measures are numerous, emphasizing family caregiving burden, the presence of diabetes, depression, being a woman, the presence of chronic kidney disease, and the presence of cardiovascular disease. high body index or overweight or obesity.

The study was conducted in the hospital’s cardiology department on October 12 on a group of 503 patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary intervention.

Patients were followed up by telephone six and two months after discharge to assess adherence to pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures (diet and physical activity) using three questionnaires.

The UCM researchers hope that knowing the predictors of the risk of non-adherence to each of the secondary prevention measures will help “earlier identify patients at highest risk of non-adherence” to be better able to “prevent and improve prognosis.” EFE

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